V 


0^f'Pill^ 


^  ^?AY  i  1918 


(^^ 


A 


BV  1532  .M3  1917 

McEntire,  Ralph  N. 

The  Sunday  school  secretary 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


SECRETARY 


RALPH   N.  McENTIRE 


MAY   1   1918 


A 


THE   METHODIST   BOOK   CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  .-.  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
RALPH  N.  McENTiRE 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  A  Business  Proposition 5 

II.  The   Secretary 15 

III.  Enrollment 20 

IV.  Class  Records 31 

V.  The  Study  of  Absences 48 

VI.  Withdrawals — ^The  Problem 64 

VII.  Withdrawals — The   Solution 71 

VIII.  The  Personal  Letter 81 

IX.  The  Secretary's  Report 91 

X.  Prospective  Members 108 

XI.  The  Rural  Sunday  School 118 

XII.  Decision  Day 126 

XIII.  The  New  Secretary 135 

XIV.  Quick  Reference  Records 140 

XV.  Things  to  Remember 146 


CHAPTER  I 

A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 

Until  within  the  last  few  years  the  Sunday  school 
secretary  was  regarded  rather  as  an  accessor}^  than  as 
a  part  of  the  vital  mechanism  of  the  school.  He  did 
very  little,  largely  because  but  little  was  required  or 
expected.  The  development  of  the  Sunday  school 
during  the  last  decade  has  been  marvelous  in  many  of 
the  phases  of  the  work,  but  in  the  majority  of  schools 
the  secretary  is  still  merely  counting  the  attendance, 
perhaps  adding  the  collection,  and  making  a  note  of 
w^eather  conditions.  Just  a  glance,  liowever,  into  the 
history  of  the  development  of  the  modern  Sunday 
school  shows  that  criticism  is  not  to  be  directed  at  the 
secretary  in  contrast  with  the  other  offi- 
Recognized  cials.  Nearly  all  of  these  other  officers 
^"st°"d^^d  ^^^^^  ^^^^  new,  up-to-date  plans  and  meth- 
ods all  worked  out  and  not  onl}^  offered 
but  urged  and  forced  upon  them  and  their  schools. 
Scores  of  volumes  have  been  written,  numerous  mag- 
azines published,  uncounted  helps,  representing  fabu- 
lous investment,  furnished — for  nearly  everyone  but 
the  secretary.  There  are  training  courses  and  schools 
and  institutes  for  the  teachers,  organizations  and 
councils  and  congresses  for  the  superintendent;  but 
off  at  some  corner  in  the  average  school  is  a  little  desk 
or  table,  a  little  pile  of  class  books  or  cards  and  some 
faithful  worker,  patiently  doing  the  monotonous, 
uninspiring,  unappreciated  work  which  has  in  it  the 

5 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

undeveloped  germ,  which  is  but  just  beginning  to  stir 
itself,  and  which  when  it  bursts  into  full  power,  is 
destined  to  give  modern  Sunda}^  school  work  an  un- 
precedented forward  impulse. 

What  is  meant  by  Sunday  school  records?  What  is 
the  business,  the  work,  the  duty,  of  the  secretary  ?  In 
the  answer  to  those  questions  lies  the  solution  of  many 
a  problem.  Are  the  duties  mereh^  to  count  the  school 
and  report  the  number  present  each  Sunday?  Then 
there  are  untold  thousands  of  perfect  secretaries.  If, 
however,  there  is  a  broader  view,  greater  possibilities, 
more  opportunities  for  service,  we  would  do  well  to 
seek  information  and  instruction  in  the  place  where 
record-keeping  has  "come  into  its  own,"  where  it  has 
its  greatest  recognized  value,  where  it  has  attained  to 
its  greatest  degree  of  efficiency — the  modern  business 
world,  the  great  manufacturing  establishment,  the 
commercial  institution. 

Modern  business  is  a  science;  its  fundamentals  are 
past  the  experimental  stage  and  it  is  building  upon 
Records  in  recorded  knowledge.  The  cost  expert,  the 
the  Business   efficiency  engineer,  the  business  statistician 

^®  are  recognized  as  indispensable  factors  in 

the  business  world  of  to-day.  The  business  man,  like 
the  inventor,  keeps  a  record  of  his  failures  as  well  as 
his  successes,  and  frequently  learns  more  from  the  one 
than  from  the  other.  The  great  establishment  will 
have  its  vast  accounting  department,  with  scores  of 
busy  workers,  past  whom  no  detail  can  get,  and  there 
is  a  fascination  in  watching  this  great  mass  of  informa- 
tion as  it  is  handled,  the  essentials  sorted  and  selected, 
until  finally  in  the  safe  of  the  manager's  office  there 
is  a  little  book  marked  "Private  Ledger,"  and  by 

6 


A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 

means  of  this  one  volume  all  of  the  vital  statistics 
pass  in  review  before  the  man  upon  whom  the  final 
responsibility  lies. 

Some  years  ago  a  wave  of  office  system  swept  over 
the  country  and  the  most  elaborate  equipments  were 
installed.  In  a  short  time,  however,  the  experts  real- 
ized that  some  records  were  costing  more  than  they 
were  worth,  and  business  record-keeping  gradually 
resolved  itself  into  the  essentials — the  expenditures, 
changed  from  expense  to  investment,  paying  hand- 
some returns.  The  business  office  now  closely  scruti- 
nizes every  proposed  change  which  means  time  and 
money,  and  it  thereby  sets  a  precedent  which  the 
Sunday  school  worker  will  be  wise  to  follow. 

For  years  the  church  has  been  telling  the  business 
man  that  he  should  take  his  religion  into  his  everyday 
life  and  mix  it  with  his  business.  Is  it  not  now  time  to 
ask  that  same  business  man  to  bring  his  business  train- 
ing and  experience  to  bear  upon  some  of  our  Sunday 
school  problems  which  are  identical  witli  those  with 
which  he  has  successfully  grappled  in  his  everyday 
work?  Until  there  is  some  method  for  trainhig  Sun- 
day school  secretaries  as  we  have  learned  that  Sunday 
school  teachers  must  be  trained,  oin*  successfid  officers 
will  be  very  largely  recruited  from  the  business  world, 
and  many  a  trained  expert  will  gladly  give  his  local 
Sunday  school  the  benefits  of  all  of  his  experience 
when  he  is  shown  the  possibilities  of  the  v/ork,  and 
is  given  the  opportunity  to  work  out  the  solutions 
just  as  he  does  at  his  business  desk. 

Business  records  to-day  are  due  to  the  development 
of  an  idea  which  needs  emphasizing  in  connection  with 
their  Sunday  school  value — one  which  is  of  greatest 
importance  in  determining  the  breadth  and  the  scope 

7 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

of  the  work.  The  greatest  value  in  Sunday  school 
records,  properly  kept,  lies  in  the  fact  that  at  least  one 
person  must  know  the  school  thoroughly,  comprehen- 
sively, analytically,  before  these  records  can  be  com- 
piled. Far  too  few  schools  have  had  the  advantage  of 
seeing  themselves  as  a  modern  Sunday  school  secre- 
tary helps  them  to  do.  When  the  light  of  the  record 
book  reveals  a  bit  of  antiquated  machinery,  a  broken 
shaft  which  should  be  carrying  power  to  an  entire  de- 
partment, a  slipping  belt  which  makes  a  class  stand 
still,  the  average  school  will  be  quick  to  send  for  an 
expert  if  it  cannot  make  the  repairs  itself. 

There  are,  in  the  main,  just  three  reasons  for  poorly 
kept,  incomplete,  inaccurate  Sunday  school  records; 
Reasons  ^  ^^^^  ^f  desire,  usually  founded  on  a 

for  Poor  failure  to  realize  the  importance  and  value 

Records  of  the  work; 

A  lack  of  knowledge,  dealing  with  the  technical  side 
of  statistical  work. 

A  lack  of  money,  because  we  have  not  yet  learned 
to  look  on  the  expenditure  as  an  investment  instead  of 
an  expense. 

No  matter  how  much  we  may  appreciate  the  value 
of  business  records,  there  constantly  arises  the  query 
as  to  whether  there  is  any  real  necessity  for  work  of 
this  nature  in  Sunday  school,  and  any  discussion  of 
record-keeping  must  first  establish  the  "why"  before 
dealing  with  the  "how." 

Records  There  is  one  basic  reason  which  is  fre- 

as  a  Basis        quently  overlooked  and  which  cannot  be 

Q?1?!!?^«L  too  strongly  emphasized.  The  individual 
School  Helps         i        i    •    ^  *^.         ^-     i  i       .  ip 

school  IS  not  an  independent,  sen -organ- 
ized or  self-sustaining  institution.    The  literature,  the 

8 


A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 

helps,  the  siipphes,  the  graded  lesson  system,  the  de- 
partmental ideas,  the  Cradle  Roll,  the  Home  Depart- 
ment, the  special  organized  classes,  all  the  supplies 
for  the  special  programs  which  make  the  school  inter- 
esting, etc.,  come  from  some  great  organization,  de- 
nominational or  interdenominational,  as  the  case  may 
be.  The  real  success  of  the  individual  school  depends 
upon  whether  or  not  all  of  these  are  adaptable  to  the 
actual  conditions  and  problems  in  that  individual 
school.  In  other  words,  the  whole  Sunday  school 
movement  is  based  on  interdependence  and  mutual 
helpfulness.  Originality  is  a  good  thing,  but  the  hap- 
piest faculty  in  a  Sunday  school  worker  is  originality 
in  adapting  proven  plans  to  local,  specific  problems. 

Some  of  the  best  talent  of  the  intellectual  world 
is  engaged  in  the  study  of  Sunday  school  problems 
and  in  the  preparation  of  Sunday  school  helps.  They 
try  to  fit  them  to  the  actual  conditions ;  to  make  them 
intensely,  efficiently  practical.  We  realize  indefi- 
nitely, impersonally,  that  the  work  of  these  leaders  and 
all  of  our  various  commissions  must  be  founded  on  a 
knowledge  of  general  conditions,  but  we  seldom  real- 
ize that  our  individual  problems  are  a  component  part 
of  the  great  problem,  and  that  if  we,  with  others,  give 
them  inaccurate  or  incomplete  information,  the  re- 
sults will  affect  not  only  our  individual  school  but  the 
whole  general  movement. 

Stop  for  one  moment  and  think  of  the  problem. 
Would  you  ever  tr}^  to  establish  a  private  enterprise 
in  the  world  of  dollars  on  the  basis  of  the  scattering 
data  which  form  the  records  of  the  average  school? 
Could  a  commission  plan  wisely  on  the  information 
which  it  could  get  from  a  study  of  the  records  of  your 
school?     It  is  an  unfortunate  but  acknowledged  fact 

9 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

that  a  very  large  per  cent  of  the  reports  which  go  forth 
to  State  Sunday  School  Association  and  denomina- 
tional headquarters  are  based  on  estimates  or  guess- 
work. 

When  we  see  large  classes  or  entire  schools  using 
for  their  motto,  "Once  a  member  always  a  member," 
and  reporting  in  their  enrollment  figures  everyone 
who  has  ever  been  in  the  school,  never  separating 
associate  from  active;  when  we  find  some  one  branch 
of  Sunday  school  class  organization  developed  in  cer- 
tain towns  to  such  an  extent  that  the  same  names 
appear  on  the  enrollment  of  several  different  schools ; 
when  we  see  figures  reported  to  county,  State,  or  de- 
nominational secretaries  which  are  based  on  an  inflated 
membership  brought  in  for  a  few  Sundays  only  by 
campaigns,  contests,  parades,  brass  bands,  etc. ;  when 
we  find  entire  schools  asked  to  adjourn  early  and 
come  over  so  as  to  be  counted  in  some  other  school 
and  thus  help  to  beat  some  other  town;  when  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  find  two  schools  keephig  just  the 
same  data,  then  we  begin  to  realize  the  necessity  of 
uniformity. 

Anyone  who  studies  Sunday  scliool  records,  in 
scliool  after  school,  seeking  the  general  average  rather 
than  the  exceptional  case,  cannot  but  wonder  at  tlie 
great  measure  of  success  which  has  attended  the  efforts 
of  our  leaders,  founded  on  such  insufficient  data,  and 
tlien  stand  almost  overwhelmed  at  the  vision  of  what 
miglit  be  accomplished  in  the  Master's  business  if 
we  would  place  in  the  hands  of  our  executives  the 
kind  of  records  which  have  proven  invaluable  in  the 
world  of  dollars.  Knowledge  can  be  made  just  as 
powerful  a  force  in  the  Sunday  school  as  in  the  fac- 
tory. 

10 


A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 

The  next  question  which  arises  is  whether  there 
is  not  here  a  confusion  of  the  terms  "knowledge"  and 
^'records."  The  statement  is  frequently 
vs!^Rea)rd^  made  that  the  knowledge  does  exist  and 
that  the  recording  of  it  is  a  waste  of  time — 
that  the  skilled  superintendent  knows  the  school  thor- 
oughly and  plans  the  work  on  the  basis  of  this  knowl- 
edge. Such  an  argument  opens  up  practically  unlim- 
ited discussion,  and  but  a  few  of  the  points  can  be 
touched  upon  here. 

There  are  but  few  people  who  have  intellects  so 
highly  trained  and  dependable  as  to  afford  a  safe, 
properly  catalogued  storage  place  for  all  the  details 
of  the  modern  Sunday  school,  year  after  year. 

Again,  conclusions  reached  without  the  broadest 
investigation,  the  most  careful  research  and  the  most 
painstaking  balance  and  weighing  of  the  evidence, 
are  likely  to  be  more  properly  labeled  "Opinion" 
rather  than  that  other  word  which  has  so  much  of 
finality  in  it — "Knowledge." 

Again,  a  school  which  is  operated  on  the  basis  of 
the  knowledge  which  is  nowhere  else  than  in  the  head 
of  the  superintendent  is  of  necessity  a  one-man  school. 
Where  the  knowledge  is  strictly  localized,  authority 
and  initiative  are  centralized  in  the  same  place.  Some 
one,  in  a  business  magazine,  has  said,  "You  cannot 
play  much  of  a  game  of  chess  with  merely  a  king  and 
the  pawns." 

We  are  usually  too  close  to  our  own  school,  our  own 
work,  to  judge  wisely.  We  do  not  get  the  right  view- 
point. Few  people  can  sit  in  judgment  on  their  own 
plans  and  render  a  decision  which  is  impartial.  The 
only  dependable,  practical  way  to  make  progress  in 
Sunday  school  work  or  elsewhere  is  to  make  compar- 

11 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

isons,  and  "Comparisons"  is  merely  one  of  the  several 
ways  of  spelling  "Records." 

From  another  phase,  Sunday  school  records  are 
really  an  asset,  although  this  particular  phase  is  some- 
rpj^g  times  advanced  as  an  argument  against 

Spiritual  them  in  dealing  with  the  technical  side  of 

Aspect  ^YiQ  record-keeping.     Some  one  says  that 

the  work  of  the  Sunday  school  is  spiritual;  that  soul- 
growth  cannot  be  reckoned  in  figures,  and  that,  there- 
fore, Sunday  school  statistics  may  be  interesting,  but 
nothing  more.  However,  inferences  can  be  drawn 
when  the  secretary's  records  show  certain  classes  run- 
ning along  year  after  year  and  never  bringing  in  non- 
Christians;  every  member  of  the  class  a  church  mem- 
ber, but  the  class  never  reporting  any  practical  Chris- 
tian work  done.  This  record  can  be  compared  with  a 
neighboring  class  which  shows  nonchurch  members 
continually  added  to  the  enrollment,  constant  acces- 
sions to  the  church  and  numerous  class  activities.  If 
the  records  show  one  teacher  with  a  class  largely  made 
up  of  boys  whose  parents  are  not  Christians,  and  we 
find  them  regular  in  attendance,  attentive  in  their 
interest  and  gradually  uniting  with  the  church  and 
taking  their  places  in  its  organization,  we  can  at  least 
make  comparisons  with  that  other  teacher  who  starts 
with  a  class  of  the  same  age,  coming,  according  to  the 
records,  largely  from  homes  of  church  members,  but 
month  after  month  showing  negative  results.  The 
aggressive  Sunday  school  secretary  can  and  does  know 
his  school  spiritually  as  well  as  statistically. 

Some  one  raises  the  question  as  to  the  value  of 
records  to  the  school,  to  the  officers  and  teachers.  Per- 
haps not  the  value  of  the  work  of  an  aggressive  secre- 

12 


A  BUSINESS  PROPOSITION 

tary,  but  as  to  whether  the  inanimate  records  are  im- 
portant, whether  others  can  get  any  good  from  them. 
An  ilkistration  from  the  business  world  will  best  an- 
swer this  question. 

Two  traveling  men  were  exchanging  territory,  and 
exchanging  at  the  same  time  what  was  of  equal 
importance  to  them,  information  regarding  the  trade 
on  those  two  sections.  The  conversation  ran  some- 
what this  way : 

"Now,  here's  Jones — you'll  find  him  a  jolly  good 
fellow.  Slap  him  on  the  back,  shove  him  a  cigar,  and 
jolly  him  along  before  you  talk  business. 
Busines^^  ^  Smith,  over  at  the  Junction,  is  different. 
He  hates  tobacco.  Don't  make  the  mis- 
take of  going  in  there  smoking.  Approach  him  from 
the  side  of  his  lodge.  Talk  that  up  big  and  you  can 
win  him.  Now,  your  next  man  is  Thompson.  He  is 
strictly  a  home  man.  Tell  him  that  I  told  you  about 
the  kids  and  ask  how  they  are.  He  will  probably 
invite  yoii  home,  and  his  wife  is  the  best  cook  in  the 
territory." 

This  was  simply  what  they  regarded  as  essentials. 
Did  each  man  depend  upon  his  memory  or  did  those 
little  details  go  down  into  notebooks? 

Transferring  the  thought  to  the  Sunday  school:  if 
secretary  or  superintendent  or  teacher  moved  away ;  if 
the  last  call  came  suddenly  between  Sundays,  are  the 
records  of  your  school  in  as  good  shape  for  your  suc- 
cessor? If  all  similar  information  is  stored  away  in 
the  head  of  some  official,  everyone  knows  how  nuich 
time  it  took  to  gather  up  that  information.  Some  of  it 
could  never  be  replaced,  and  the  Master's  time  is  too 
valuable  to  waste  in  the  duplication  of  effort  in  compil- 
ing what  could  be  found  out  by  the  new  worker. 

13 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

Any  teacher  who  faced  a  new  class  on  the  first  Sun- 
day and  looked  into  those  strange  faces,  would  give 
almost  anything  for  all  of  the  information  which  their 
former  experienced  and  well-beloved  teacher  could 
have  given.  Any  teacher  who  has  ever  gone  into  a 
school  with  thoroughly  modern  records  and  had  the 
opportunity  of  studying  that  new  class  from  the 
record  standpoint,  knowing  details  of  personal  life, 
learning  the  home  problem  and  the  everyday  environ- 
ment of  each  member,  familiarizing  himself  with  all  of 
the  details  of  policy  of  that  particular  school,  will 
never  fail  the  secretary  when  he  is,  in  turn,  asked  to 
contribute  his  part  to  the  compilation  of  those  records. 

Sunday  school  records — "Why?"  Because  it  is  our 
very  real  business  to  conduct  our  little  part  of  the 
Master's  work  in  the  most  efficient  method  possible, 
and  the  modern  Sunday  school  secretary  with  his 
records  is  the  advance  agent  of  efficiency. 


14 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  SECRETARY 

Ix  dealing  witli  tlie  secretary  in  the  modern  Sunday 
school  we  are  considering  what  is  practically  a  new 
element  in  the  work — a  new  official  in  the  Sunday 
school.  Admittedly,  tact  is  needed  in  introducing  the 
work,  and  the  secretary  not  only  needs  to  he  thor- 
oughly grounded  in  the  fundamentals  of  the  work, 
hut  will  have  to  conduct  an  educational  campaign  to 
awaken  the  school  to  the  possihilities  of  the  work,  to 
avoid  the  frictions  which  will  otherAvise  arise,  and  to 
secure  the  cooperation  which  is  an  absolute  essential  in 
the  work. 

Going  again  to  the  business  world  for  a  concrete 
definition  of  his  duties,  we  w^ould  find  it  summed  up  in 
this  sentence :  to  organize  a  force  which  will  collect  and 
compile  all  of  the  information,  all  of  the  vital  statistics 
which  the  up-to-date  superintendent  and  his  assistants 
need  in  performing  their  executive  functions. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  definitely  kept  in 
mind  that  the  secretary  is  not  an  executive  officer. 
It  is  23rimarily  his  job  to  report  on  condi- 
PosiUon^  tions  as  he  finds  them,  but  not  a  necessity 
to  couple  with  that  report  recommenda- 
tions. As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  unique  position  enables 
him  to  judge  the  results  of  the  work  of  the  executive 
officers  as  they  cannot  possibly  do  themselves.  He 
has  no  plans  or  methods  which  are  being  tried  out ;  he 
has  no  personal  self-interest  in  their  success  and  can 

15 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

record  results  with  a  clear-headed  and  unprejudiced 
accuracy.  It  will  quickly  be  shown  that  he  will  sup- 
plement the  work  of  all  the  other  officials  and  in  the 
average  school  will  assume  many  of  the  burdens  of 
the  long  over-worked  and  overburdened  superintend- 
ent, and  will  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  leading  officials 
of  the  school. 

His  opportunities,  especially  during  the  formative 
period  of  the  work,  are  practically  unlimited.  He 
will  know  more  about  the  school  than  any  other  person 
in  it.  He  will  see  and  study  the  officers,  teachers,  and 
scholars  from  an  impersonal  angle.  These  cease  to  be 
individuals  and  become  figures  in  his  problem.  In  this 
impersonal  way  he  seeks  the  viewpoint  of  his  fellow 
workers ;  he  knows  the  motives  as  well  as  the  methods. 
He  collects  from  the  teacher  those  vital  things  which 
only  a  conscientious  teacher  can  know  about  those  in 
her  charge ;  and  then,  by  supplementary  investigation, 
by  the  study  of  totals,  by  comparisons,  class  with  class 
and  individual  with  individual,  come  the  revelations 
which,  in  the  hands  of  the  trained  executive,  are  trans- 
muted into  achievements  in  this  great  work. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  impersonal  attitude,  is  the 
opportunity  which  comes  during  the  secretary's  visits 
over  the  school.  There  is  an  almost  inevitable  attitude 
toward  the  member  of  the  school  who  has  been  ele- 
vated to  the  superintendency,  or  toward  one  who  has 
been  called  to  a  pastorate.  There  is  always  a  bit  of 
"dress  parade"  when  they  come  to  a  class  or  depart- 
ment room.  The  best  pupil  is  usually  called  upon. 
But  the  secretary,  until  they  get  a  glimpse  of  all  of 
the  data  that  are  going  down  into  the  little  unobtrusive 
notebook,  is  simply  one  of  the  school  and  has  an  oppor- 
tunity to  see  every  phase  of  the  work  in  its  entire 

16 


THE  SECRETARY 

naturalness.  He  very  frequently  has  the  opportunity 
of  writing  into  his  notes  the  fact  that  those  boys  are 
discussing  their  last  "hike"  or  yesterday's  baseball 
game ;  that  the  girls  are  telling  what  a  good  time  they 
had  at  the  party;  that  a  class  is  discussing  its  next 
social,  instead  of  its  social  service  obligation.  There 
is  always  a  score  of  impressions  received  on  each  trip 
through  the  school,  and  they  are  carefully  sorted  and 
become  the  basis  for  some  of  the  most  effective  work 
of  tlie  executive  officers. 

Every  profession  has  its  distinguishing  characteris- 
tics and  qualifications.  The  modern  Sunday  school 
secretary  has  his.  He  is  a  statistician,  an  investigator. 
He  is  a  thorough  student  of  modern  Sunday  school 
work  and  organization,  because  without  this  knowl- 
edge he  cannot  know  what  really  comprises  the  vital 
statistics.  He  likes  to  deal  with  figures,  not  merely 
to  keep  a  neat,  perfectly  balanced  set  of  books,  but 
because  by  the  compilation  of  these  records,  by  the 
comparisons,  by  the  hours  of  study  as  to  the  real  mean- 
ing of  the  figures,  he  can  get  at  the  root  of  the  problem 
and  place  before  the  superintendent  and  his  corps  of 
teachers  a  general,  comprehensive,  and  dependable 
survey.    He  has  tact  and  patience,  and  will  need  both. 

As  indicated  before,  business  training  will  be  al- 
most indispensable  until  the  Sunday  school  trains  its 
secretaries  in  some  practical  way,  and  the  secretary 
needs  especially  the  broad  viewpoint  instilled  by  the 
business  training  and  experience.  He  will  use  the 
telescope  as  well  as  the  microscope — he  will  test  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  his  own  records  by  those  of 
others.  He  studies  by  the  comparative  method;  he 
seeks  the  final  conclusions  by  the  law  of  averages. 

He  especially  realizes  the  necessity  of  thoroughness, 

17 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

of  facing  conditions  as  they  are,  of  actualities  instead 
of  theories.  He  faces  facts  squarely. 
Character-  The  problems,  the  worries,  the  weak 
istics  of  the  places  play  a  very  important  part  in  his 
Secretary  ^^sd  summing  up.  He  realizes  that  the 
average  school  prefers  that  its  family 
skeleton  be  kept  safely  locked  up  in  its  closet  and  that 
his  records  are  the  key.  His  school  pride,  as  well  as 
his  judgment,  however,  makes  him  exceedingly  cau- 
tious as  to  when  and  under  what  carefully  chosen  con- 
ditions he  unlocks  the  door. 

Right  here  is  where  arises  the  need  for  the  partic- 
ularly outstanding  characteristic — the  ideal  secretary 
is  an  optimist.  The  wearer  of  blue  glasses  may  be  use- 
ful somewhere,  but  the  office  of  the  secretary  is  for- 
ever closed  to  him.  There  is  a  place  for  plain  speak- 
ing, for  sober  thinking,  for  outspoken  criticism,  but 
the  only  secretary  whose  report  is  really  constructive 
is  the  one  who  has  faith  in  the  ultimate  success  of  his 
own  school.  And  this  serious  side  of  his  work  has  but 
little  place  in  those  phases  which  are  known  to  the 
school  as  a  whole,  and  especially  to  the  children.  Here 
he  is  a  stimulant  of  the  cheeriest  sort.  He  never 
scolds,  and  he  has  studied  other  schools  and  other 
workers  until  he  realizes  how  few  really  have  the 
requisite  tact  to  publicly  administer  reproof,  and  he 
"plays  it  safe"  by  sticking  close  to  dependable  methods 
of  commendation.  This  does  not  mean  effusive  flat- 
tery, for  he  knows  children  too  well  to  try  that,  but 
there  are  few  sessions  of  any  school  where  there  is  not 
something  helpful  and  inspiring  to  report  and  the 
secretary's  training  instinctively  leads  him  to  these. 

Here  is  the  point.  Every  one  feels  better  when 
they  are  told  that  there  are  ''nearly  five  hundred"  pres- 

18 


THE  SECRETARY 

ent,  instead  of  the  discouraging  note  of  ''less  than  five 
hundred."  Your  true  secretary  tells  how  many  were 
on  time  and  lets  you  figure  out  the  tardinesses  except 
on  very  occasional  Sundays.  Those  who  come  out  on 
a  rainy  day  are  commended,  and  not  scolded  because 
others  are  absent.  Human  nature  does  not  change 
simply  by  bringing  the  individual  into  a  Sunday 
school,  and  consequently  it  is  far  easier  to  raise  the 
standard  in  any  phase  of  the  work  by  continual  refer- 
ence to  the  excellence  attained  than  by  a  recital  of 
failures.  It  is  the  real  purpose  of  the  secretary's 
report  to  send  each  cliild  liome  from  the  scliool  with 
the  firmly  fixed  idea  tluit  he  is  an  important  part  of 
that  Sunday  school  and  tliat  tliat  Sunday  school  is  one 
to  which  it  is  well  wortli  while  to  belong.  Naturally, 
the  only  one  who  is  successful  in  arousing  enthusiasm 
is  the  one  wlio  has  been  previously  aroused  himself  and 
the  successful  secretary  is  the  one  who  has  had  the 
vision  and  believes  heartily  in  his  school. 

His  business  training  has  led  him  through  some  of 
the  intricacies  of  that  modern  term  "efficiency,"  and 
he  has  been  shown  that  the  basis  of  this  line  of  work  is 
seeking  the  answer  to  the  "why"  of  everything  which 
goes  onto  his  record  book.  It  is  the  facts  behind  the 
figures  which  he  is  really  seeking,  and  the  universal 
trademark  of  the  Sunday  school  secretary  is  the  ques- 
tion mark. 


19 


CHAPTER  III 
ENROLLMENT 

Every  record  system  starts  with  the  enroUment 
data,  and  this  is  the  first  step  in  the  secretary's  work, 
hecause,  no  matter  what  the  size  of  the  school,  whether 
it  be  so  small  that  one  person  does  all  of  the  work  or 
so  large  as  to  reqnire  a  separate  enrolling  force,  the 
details  should  be  under  the  direction  and  supervision 
of  the  general  secretary.  The  enrollment  data  are  a 
very  important  factor  in  all  of  the  work  which  follows, 
and  every  phase  of  the  record  keeping  must  be  prop- 
erly co-related. 

Opinions  differ  as  to  the  best  manner  of  enrolling 
new  scholars  and  making  the  assignments  to  depart- 
ments and  classes.  Naturally,  methods 
Secreta^  will  differ.  The  school  with  an  enrollment 
of  fifty  will  have  no  use  for  all  of  the  com- 
plicated machinery  which  is  necessary  in  the  school 
of  twenty-five  hundred.  No  matter  how  the  assign- 
ments may  be  made;  whether  the  new  scholar  goes 
into  the  class  with  a  friend  and  the  name  is  simply 
written  in  a  classbook;  whether  the  general  superin- 
tendent or  the  department  superintendent  determines 
the  class ;  whether  the  general  secretary  or  the  enroll- 
ment secretary  has  the  responsibility,  the  secretary 
must  have  opportunity  to  secure  the  requisite  informa- 
tion for  the  records.  In  every  school,  it  is  decidedly 
preferable  that  the  new  scholar  should  be  brouglit 
to  the  secretary  or  some  member  of  the  force  in  order 

20 


ENROLLMENT 


APPLICATION    FOR    MEMBERSHIP 


Na'Tf 

Enroll ♦ 

No 

Mi^rc^n 

D«t« 

.           \      exact  if  under  18 

1S.24 

over  24 

Birthday 

bay 

Month 

If  a  student  Day  School  Gradc_ 
Occupation..... 

High  School 

CoIIeife 

.What  Church  ?_ 


Church  Member  ? 

Former  Sunday  School  Membership — What  School  7_ 


-Baptized 


Position  in  School  7_ 


Assigned  to. 
By_ _ 


-Department- 


-Qa 


IC    METTHODIST     BOOK     CONCERN. 


Year 

School 
Attendance 

Lessons 

Brought  Bible 

OflTering 

Church 
Attendance 

TOTAL 

Ti.f  nerage  result  altalntd  bv  the  Bcholai  tach  year  accordlnj  to  the  claia  record  ahosld  Be  transferred  to  lhl»  card  as  a  penninenl  record.          | 

These  cuts  show  both  sides  of  an  application  card,  which  is  also  in- 
tended to  be  used  as  an  enrollment  card.  It  provides  for  practically 
all  of  the  data  which  are  used  in  the  ordinary  Sunday  school. 

21 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

that  the  records  may  be  filled  out  correctly  and  com- 
pletely. 

The  details  of  enrollment  information  will  vary 
with  the  methods  in  use  in  the  individual  school. 
There  are,  however,  certain  fundamentals  which  are 
necessary  in  any  system  and  which  are  necessary  in 
making  a  study  of  the  individual  member  as  an  ele- 
ment in  the  entire  school  problem.    These  are : 

Name 

Address 

Birthday,  which  should  include  the  exact  age  of  the  younger 
scholars  and  the  approximate  age  of  the  older  members. 
Birthday  greetings  are  being  used  in  increasing  degree,  and 
the  information  should  be  secured  at  time  of  enrollment, 
whether  it  is  being  used  in  the  school  at  the  time  or  not. 

Public  School  Grade.  This,  of  course,  applies  especially 
to  those  who  are  in  the  grade  schools,  high  school  or  col- 
lege, but  is  necessary  where  the  Sunday  school  is  graded 
on  the  public  school  basis.  Even  where  this  is  not  the 
basis  for  Sunday  school  grading,  the  information  should  be 
on  the  enrollment  blank,  so  that  it  will  be  available  for  the 
officers  and  for  the  individual  teacher. 

Baptism,  Confirmation  or  Church  Membership.    This  will, 
of   course,    vary   in    different   denominations    and    different 
schools,  but  whatever  the  form  or  term  may 
The  Funda-         be,  the  information  is  of  exceeding  great  value, 
mentals  and    is    one    which    is    very    frequently    over- 

looked in  record  keeping.  The  teacher,  in 
particular,  will  need  the  information,  and  the  officers  of 
the  school  should  have  it  in  planning  their  work.  It  is 
an  absolutely  essential  element  in  the  modern,  scientific 
study  of  the  school. 

Parents'  Name  and  Address.  This  will  apply  only  in  the 
enrollment  of  children,  but  with  these  should  always  be 
secured.  The  necessity  of  greater  cooperation  between  the 
school  and  the  parents  is  universally  recognized,  and  specific 
uses  for  this  enrollment  information  will  be  developed  later. 

22 


ENROLLMENT 


'/ 

■/ 

'/ 

■/ 

'  / 

'/ 

'          / 
/ 

t«.d,  K.„. 

'   /'/////// 

A.IJ,„. 

DATE  OF  BIRTH     -       -       - 

**** 

**** 

1 

MEMBER  of  what  CHURCH 

ATTENDS  WHAT  S.  S 

4. 

1 

CRADLE  ROLL        -       - 

BEGINNERS      -       -       - 

PRIMARY          -       -       - 



JUNIOR      -       -        -       - 

INTERMEDIATE 

SENIOR      -       -       -       - 
ADULT       ...       - 

TEACHER  TRAINING 

HOME         -       .       .       - 

»M«Y    P.CORO    C.RO.                                                                                             TH«    MCTHOO.ST    BOOK    CONC«N.       NC*  YORK-C.,.C.NN.T. 

OTHER  'MEMBERS   OF   FAMILY 

NAME 

AGE 

.ee  below 

MEMBER  OF 
Sondar  School        Church 

OCCUPATION 

F.tl><r 

Motkcr 

Otker. 

Give  approximate  age  or  iniiicate  department  in  wkich  pertos  would  or  does  beloDj.                                                             | 

These  two  forms  are  both  intended  for  the  same  purpose — the  record- 
ing of  information  regarding  the  entire  family.  This  information  is 
most  easily  secured  at  the  time  a  new  member  is  enrolled.  In  the 
case  of  those  who  are  already  members  of  the  school  the  teacher  should 
be  asked  to  secure  the  information.  This  card  is  invaluable  in  exten- 
sion work. 

23 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

Church  Membership  op^  Parents.  This,  again,  is  a  funda- 
mental, both  for  the  officers  of  the  school  and  the  teacher 
who  is  to  deal  with  the  scholar.  The  home  problem  has 
such  a  bearing  on  the  class  and  school  work  that  no  enroll- 
ment records  are  complete  without  this  data. 

There  are  almost  an  unlimited  number  of  additional 
features  which  are  valuable  and  which  have  a  very 
important  place  in  the  schools  which  are  equipped  to 
make  use  of  them,  and  this  applies  to  an  increasing 
number  of  schools.  These  are  illustrated  in  the  vari- 
ous forms  shown.  While  the  general  tendency  is 
toward  too  little  information  rather  than  too  much 
detail,  the  new  secretary  or  the  school  which  is  chang- 
ing its  record  forms  will  be  wise  to  avoid  burdening  the 
records  with  nonessentials  or  with  details  which  never 
get  bej^ond  the  enrollment  card.  The  purpose  of  all 
enrollment  data  is  to  furnish  a  basis  for  real  construc- 
tive work. 

One  additional  bit  of  information  is  exceedingly 
important,  and  nearly  any  school  can  make  use  of 
Other  t^^^  information,  even  if  it  is  not  doing  so 

Members  of  at  the  present  time.  This  is  information 
the  Family      ^^  ^^  ^j^^  ^^j^^^.  members  of  the  family.    A 

Sunday  school  which  can  reach  all,  or  even  a  inajority, 
of  the  members  from  a  home  has  an  opportunity  which 
does  not  come  where  the  home  is  not  so  connected  with 
the  school.  Again,  the  teacher  who  is  to  have  the  new 
scholar  will  find  it  very  much  easier  to  have  these  de- 
tails secured  by  the  enrollment  secretary  rather  than 
to  have  to  ask  these  rather  personal  questions  when 
making  a  friendly  call  in  the  home. 

Another  important  part  of  the  equipment  of  the 
enrollment  secretary,  or  registrar,  or  whatever  title 
may  be  given,  is  a  blank  which  can  be  used  to  start  the 

24 


ENROLLMENT 


FIRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL.  Derniur.  111. 

Department ■. 

Claw  No Auigned  to  Courw 

Supl.  .  .    . 

Name  in  full ..,     .- . 

Street  and    number.     

Date  of  fir«l  enrollment  in  >hi>  School .. .      

Date  of  Birth— year — . month  .        day Phone:  a  orb 

If  a  Student Grade ; Year,  High  School Univ. 

What  vocation  do  you  plan  to  follow? __ Father's  occupation 

Dale  of  convertion   , Baptised? 

Member  of  Church? What  Church? . 

Names  of  Parents— Mother — , Father 

Are  Parents  members  of  Church? What  Church? . 

Other  members  of  family  who  do  not  attend  Church  or  Sunday  School . 

n.rzii~zz.izi"zi]-Zziziiz;         zzzizzizizzz  Ageiizii 

Attended  this  School years mon!h« 

Attended  what  other  schools? From  what  department  graduated? 

Regular  or  irregular  in  attendance? Transferred  to  special  index-Reason 

Dropped  from  enrollment— Reason 

Standing— Ct^a.Jle  Roll Beginners Kindergarten ^_      Primary 

Junior Intermediate— High  School . Senior— College — 

Graduate— Aduft 


These  forms  show  the  wide  range  of  information  which  is  asked  for 
in  various  schools.  A  study  of  these  will  prove  very  helpful  as  illus- 
trating the  thoroughness  with  which  some  schools  go  into  the  study 
of  their  membership. 

25 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

machinery  of  the  school  with  a  view  to  bringing  these 
non- Sunday  school  folks  into  the  school.  This  phase 
of  the  work  is  covered  in  more  detail  in  the  chapter  on 
^'Prospective  Members." 

There  is  sometimes  hesitancy  in  attempting  the  com- 
plete enrollment  scheme,  but  the  schools  which  have 
been  using  it  longest  find  that  the  new  scholar  thinks 
none  the  less  of  the  school  for  these  little  formalities. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  the  feeling  that  anything 
which  is  so  easily  joined  as  the  ordinary  Sunday  school 
is  hardly  worth  the  operation,  and  the  tactful  enroll- 
ment secretary  can  get  practically  any  reasonable 
data. 

Where  the  enrolling  is  done  by  a  separate  officer  or 
force,  great  care  should  be  taken  in  the  selection  of  the 
person.  The  new  member,  especially  if  it  be  a  child, 
will  get  the  first  impressions  of  the  school  in  this  way, 
and  the  value  of  first  impressions  needs  no  argument. 

From  the  school  standpoint,  however,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  every  department  of  the  school,  with  the 
lessons  studied,  and  even  the  peculiarities 
Analys^^^  of  the  teacher,  and  the  component  ele- 
ments of  the  various  classes,  is  a  requisite. 
Of  course  this  applies  in  largest  measure  to  the  school 
which  is  of  a  size  to  have  several  classes  doing  the 
same  work;  but  where  this  is  the  case,  the  little  in- 
formation, the  side  lights  which  are  not  covered  by  any 
enrollment  card,  can  play  an  important  part  in  the 
assignment  to  a  particular  class. 

For  example,  when  a  boy  unites  with  the  Sunday 
school  and  the  enrollment  secretary  learns  that  he 
comes  from  a  certain  grade  school,  tactful  questions 
as  to  teacher  or  day-school  life,  or  perhaps  some  out- 
standing phase  of  athletics  in  that  particular  day 

26 


EXROLLMEXT 

school,  have  a  decided  bearing  on  the  proper  placing 
of  the  boy.  If  he  be  of  a  quiet,  reserved,  studious 
nature,  he  will  be  much  more  at  home  in  a  certain  class, 
while  if  he  be  fond  of  sports  and  games,  there  may  be 
some  other  teacher  who  can  much  more  quickly  and 
easily  win  him.  The  correct  placing  of  a  child  in  a 
Sunday  school  class  is  frequently  the  determining 
factor,  and  the  information  which  is  secured  at  the 
time  of  enrollment  is  of  the  greatest  importance, 
whether  the  enrollment  secretary  does  the  assigning 
or  simply  collects  this  information  as  an  aid  to  some 
other  official,  who  may  have  the  assignment  in  charge. 

One  final  reason  for  thoroughness  in  enrollment  is 
that  it  will  never  again  be  so  easy  to  ask  some  of  these 
questions  in  a  perfectly  natural  way,  and  the  enroll- 
ment blanks  should,  therefore,  cover  all  of  the  details 
which  the  school  expects  to  use.  Especially  is  this  true 
in  those  features  relating  to  the  other  members  of  the 
family. 

Especially  in  the  case  of  the  enrollment  of  little 
children  there  will  be  some  of  the  questions  which  can- 
not be  answered,  and  this  makes  it  necessary  to  provide 
some  other  way  of  securing  the  data.  Some  schools 
use  a  postcard  form  as  illustrated,  senduig  it  to  the 
child's  parents  and  asking  them  to  fill  it  out  and  return 
it  to  the  secretary.  In  other  schools  there  are  not  so 
many  enrollments  and  the  secretary  personally  secures 
the  information  during  tlie  week.  Whatever  metliod 
may  be  used,  this  accurate  enrollment  data  shoidd  be 
all  secured,  even  with  the  smallest  children  who  get 
onto  the  rolls  of  the  school. 

From  the  business  viewpoint,  again,  if  the  enroll- 
ment secretary  could  take  a  trip  through  some  large 
manufacturing  plant  and  see  how  carefully  all  of 

27 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECllETARY 


Register  of  Members 

D.„ 

'rrr" 

— 

Chu.ch 

.... 

°- 

WITHDRAWN                                                          1 

D.t. 

«•-"" 

L..^^ 

' 

^ 

A  page  from  the  enrollment  secretary's  record  book,  giving  the  data 
which  are  used  the  most. 


The   familiar,    quick   reference  card   tray    which   is   an    indispensable 
feature  in  the  secretary's  office. 


In  compfeiing  our  enrollment  records  ut  need  a  lililc  more  information, 
kindly  fill  out  any  blanks  which  are  checked  and  mail  the  card  as  soon  a 

Scholars   Name 

Will  you  not 
possible: 

Parents  Name 

Address 

Are  Parents  Members  of  the  Church? _ _ 1 

Has  the  child  united  with  the  church?    If  so.  give  date  if  possible 

The  school  which  uses  this  form,  prints  it  on  a  government  postcard 
and  sends  it  to  the  parents  of  the  younger  children  who  have  not  been 
able  to  furnish  all  of  the  information  at  the  time  of  their  enrollment. 

28 


ENROLLMENT 

the  new  material  is  analyzed,  and  how  this 
niustratfon  analysis  and  examination  determines  the 
course  of  the  material  through  the  fac- 
tory, the  processes  to  which  it  is  subjected,  etc.,  there 
would  come  a  new  realization  of  the  possibility  of  that 
position.  If  the  trip  could  be  extended  through  sev- 
eral factories,  and  the  scrap  piles  studied,  comparisons 
made  between  the  loss  in  material  in  different  factories 
and  the  direct  connection  between  this  and  the  analysis 
of  the  raw  material  before  the  beginning  of  the  opera- 
tion, there  w^ould  be  far  more  care  exercised  in  study- 
ing the  new  pupil  and,  where  the  school  was  large^ 
enough  to  offer  a  choice,  in  the  selection  of  the  teacher; 
and  in  the  school  where  tliere  could  be  no  choice  of 
teachers,  especial  care  in  the  passing  on  of  the  little 
bits  of  detailed  information  which  would  help  that 
teacher  in  taking  the  raw  material  and  transforming 
it  into  the  finished  product  of  the  modern  Sunday 
school.  The  possibilities  of  the  position  of  enrollment 
secretary,  especially  in  the  larger  schools,  are  just  be- 
ginning to  be  realized. 

All  of  the  preceding  suggestions  have  dealt  very 
largely  with  what  might  be  technically  termed  the  "ap- 
pHcation  for  enrollment,"  although  perhaps  the  ma- 
jority of  schools  use  this  same  card  as  the  enrolhnent 
card. 

Where  the  work  is  being  done  in  a  large  school,  or 
where  the  records  would  get  voluminous,  tliere  is  usu- 
ally this  application  card  and  then  the  enrollment  card. 
The  differences  are  shown  in  the  sample  forms  illus- 
trated. Much  of  tlie  information  of  the  application 
card  is  essential  only  for  the  purpose  of  properly  de- 
termining the  class  or  department  and  will  not  find 
place  in  the  technical  enrollment  card.     On  the  other 

29 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

hand,  the  enroUment  card  will  provide  place  for 
recording  the  promotions  from  department  to  depart- 
ment and  the  other  details  which  should  be  made  a 
part  of  the  permanent  records  of  the  school. 

If  each  enrollment  secretary  could  have  a  course  of 
training  and  one  section  of  this  course  could  include 
the  experience  of  the  new  superintendent  who  takes 
up  the  work  of  the  school,  without  having  had  a  chance 
to  know  it  thoroughly  for  years  in  advance,  and  who 
wants  to  learn,  in  some  way,  not  only  what  has  been 
doing  but  just  who  it  is  that  really  composes  the 
membership  of  the  school,  the  enrollment  records 
would  l)e  not  only  most  carefully  filled  out  but  kept 
up  with  equal  care.  This  phase  emphasizes  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  the  most  thorough  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  the  general  secretary  of  the  whole  scope  of 
Sunday  school  work,  the  laying  down  of  very  specific 
rules,  if  they  are  to  be  followed  by  different  persons 
who  may  be  carrying  on  the  different  parts  of  the 
secretarial  work,  and  the  bringing  together  of  all  of 
this  information  in  its  tabulated  form  at  the  desk  of 
the  general  secretary. 


30 


CHAPTER  IV 
CLASS  RECORDS 

Studying  the  new  scholar  is  one  of  tlie  more  mod- 
ern phases  of  secretarial  work,  and  it  is  another  ohliga- 
Following  ^i^^^  ^^^^  another  opportunity  to  he  of 
up  the  New  service  to  the  school.  An  increased  em- 
em  er  j)hasis  is  properly  heing  placed  on  the 
holding  of  the  scholar  when  once  enrolled.  I^ess  atten- 
tion is  heing  paid  to  mere  numhers,  to  a  large  enroll- 
ment of  nonattending  memhers.  There  is  an  increased 
realization  of  the  fact  that  a  much  higlier  standard  of 
class  work  can  he  attained  through  regularity  of  at- 
tendance and  less  dependence  on  the  idea  that  there 
is  some  pecvdiar  merit  in  the  religious  atmosphere  of  a 
Sunday  school  which  will  have  some  strange  and  mys- 
terious effect  on  the  life  of  the  individual  who  spends 
but  a  Sunday  or  two  in  the  school.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  school  which  first  reaches  the  individual  who 
has  had  no  previous  Sunday  school  experience,  and 
then  fails  to  make  that  Sunday  school  experience  en- 
joyable, has  made  it  just  that  much  harder  for  any 
other  school  to  approach  the  same  person. 

Naturally,  the  ideal  condition  is  one  where  every 
officer  and  every  teacher  is  giving  the  proper  consid- 
eration to  this  phase  of  the  work;  ])ut  whetlier  this  is 
being  done  or  not,  the  executive  officers  need  to  know 
the  actual  facts,  and  it  becomes  tlie  duty  of  the  secre- 
tary to  collect  this  information — to  know  whether  each 
new  member  really  becomes  an  active  attendant,  and 
this  means  class  records. 

31 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

In  this  phase  of  the  work,  plans  and  methods  are 
almost  without  number.  No  matter  which  method 
may  be  determined  upon,  it  should  be  made  to  center 
at  the  desk  of  the  general  secretary.  In  schools  large 
enough  there  will  be  department  secretaries  who  will 
collect  the  data  for  each  department,  but  these,  in  turn, 
will  come  to  the  one  desk  in  their  condensed  form. 

In  these  class  records  there  should  be  the  greatest 
degree  of  simplicity  which  will  be  in  keeping  with  the 
needs  of  the  school.  This  for  two  reasons.  The 
average  teacher  is  not  a  statistician,  has  not  made  a 
study  of  record-keeping  and  its  essentials,  and,  there- 
fore, records,  which  are  more  or  less  complicated,  com- 
piled by  regular  teachers,  if  present,  and  by  substi- 
tute teachers  frequently,  can  never  reach  the  desired 
degree  of  accuracy  which  makes  them  valuable.  In 
the  second  place,  with  all  of  the  importance  of  the 
lesson  presentation  and  the  far  too  limited  time  avail- 
able during  the  session  of  the  ordinary  Sunday  school 
for  lesson  study,  it  is  hardly  fair  to  ask  the  teacher  to 
use  so  much  of  that  time  in  keeping  up  intricate  sys- 
tems. 

The  experienced  secretary  usually  secures  the  best 
results  by  having  a  sufficiently  large  force  of  trained 
workers  to  handle  all  of  the  details  in  the  office,  leav- 
ing the  teacher  practically  free  during  the  entire  lesson 
period,  but  calling  on  this  same  teacher  for  cooperation 
during  the  week. 

There  is  a  great  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
information  which  should  be  covered  by  the  class 
Information  records.  The  average  school  simply 
Usually  records  individual  attendance  and  class 

collection,  and  even  this  most  simple  form 
of  class  records  requires  increasing  skill  in  the  han- 

32 


CLASS  RECORDS 


1 
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This  form  and  that  on  page  34  are  very  exceptional  in  the  amount  of 
detail  which  is  recorded.  While  such  a  system  would  admittedly  require 
a  great  deal  of  clerical  work,  the  schools  using  these  consider  the  time 
well  spent. 

dling  as  the  enrollment  of  the  school  increases.     As 
shown  by  the  forms  illustrated,  the  supplemental  in- 

33 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


EFFICIENCY  SYSTEM  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  CLASS  RECORDS 

INDIVIDUAL 
Dcr~r\an 

MARKS,  e-  '"^7-;-„,*,;,°,^  ^-.^^^^^^'.o^'  r„"„°,?»'r"A'^r,i™  Lu^""'""  *""-"" 

n<>i»>rfm«n* 

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Ji.«\v<.c    vvva.    <!k«.Ko.v.\.     l^x..v.   ,^oua^    ;.^Vv.oV^V. 

formation  includes  not  onl}^  Present,  l)ut  On  Time 
information,  the  Bringing  of  a  Bible,  the  Individual 
Collection,  Home  Lesson  Study,  and  Church  Attend- 
ance, and  from  these  on  to  questions  of  week-day  activ- 
ities, social  service  work,  etc.  The  value  of  all  of  these 
must  be  determined  by  the  individual  school  and  the 
equipment  and  the  willingness  to  invest  the  necessary 
time  in  the  keeping  of  these  records  must  all  be  taken 
into  consideration.  As  a  general  rule,  the  smaller 
schools  get  splendid  results  from  keeping  at  least  the 
first  six  points,  and  there  are  also  many  of  the  large 
schools  which  keep  this  up  throughout  certain  depart- 
ments. The  whole  question  is  one  for  the  individual 
school,  but  it  should  be  most  carefully  considered 
before  launching  a  new  set  of  records. 

After  the  desired  data  have  been  determined  upon, 
the  next  logical  step  is  that  of  the  method  for  secur- 
ing the  reports.  Here,  again,  the  local  school  must 
choose  between  many  methods.    In  some  sections,  and 

34 


CLASS  RECORDS 


o 

o 

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FMX 

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BS.G  CHT^SIBS            DEPARTKr 

FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  SABBATH  SCHOOL 

TOPEKA.  KANSAS 

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This  form  is  used  by  a  Sunday  school  which  secures  its  information 
as  the  scholars  enter  their  resi»ective  department  rooms.  The  small 
cards  are  filled  out  by  the  membei's  themselves,  the  number  or  the  word 
on  the  end  of  the  card  indicating  the  class.  These  little  slii)s  are 
dropped  into  boxes  and  are  collected  at  the  time  for  the  opening  of 
the  school,  thus  showing  those  who  are  on  time  and  again  later  on  to 
get  the  complete  record  of -attendance.  The  records  of  a  large  school 
are  handled  with  a  minimum  of  time  and  trouble. 

35 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

in  schools  where  the  building  arrangements  are  such 
as  to  make  the  plan  feasible,  all  of  these  records  are 
taken  at  the  door  as  the  members  enter.  This  may 
be  at  one  door  for  a  small  school  or  at  the  door  of  the 
department  rooms  for  the  larger  scliool.  Where  this 
plan  is  followed,  three  general  methods  prevail.  In 
the  first  there  is  one  person  for  approximately  fifty 
members,  grouped  into  classes,  who  has  a  desk  at  the 
door  and  to  whom  each  of  these  fifty  report  as  they 
enter.  All  of  the  details  of  any  credit  system  can  be 
recorded  very  raj^idly  in  this  way,  and  the  individual 
members  of  even  tlie  larger  schools  verj^  quickly  learn 
to  which  desk  to  go.  Tliese  data  are  sometimes  re- 
corded in  special  books,  and  in  otlier  cases  on  the  reg- 
ular attendance  cards.  This  metliod  insures  accuracy, 
and  gets  all  of  the  reports  to  tlie  office  of  tlie  general 
secretary  at  a  certain  definite  time.  It  also  saves  all  of 
tlie  time  of  the  class  period  for  tlie  lesson  presentation. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  calls  for  a  very  de- 
Methods  pendable  force  of  a  considerable  number 

of  secretaries  in  tlie  larger  schools,  and 
these  must,  of  necessity,  be  the  first  persons  present  at 
each  session  of  the  school,  in  order  that  the  early 
comers  may  be  properly  recorded.  Again,  many  Sun- 
day school  buildings  have  many  places  of  entrance  and 
find  it  impossible  to  get  the  members  of  the  school  to 
always  come  to  certain  doors.  Where  building  and 
secretary's  force  and  school  cooperation  can  all  be 
brought  together,  this  plan  is  ideal. 

Another  system  follows  somewhat  the  same  general 
plan,  but  provides  at  the  door  or  doors  card  racks 
somewhat  similar  to  factory  time-card  systems,  and 
each  scholar  takes  out  or  transfers  the  individual  at- 
tendance  card.      Still   another   provides   a   separate 

36 


CLASS  RECORDS 

report  card  for  each  scholar  for  each  Sunday  which  is 
filled  out  at  the  door  hy  the  scholar  and  deposited  in 
the  proper  receptacle. 

The  most  general  method,  however,  is  that  of  having 
hound  class  books  or  envelopes  containing  the  individ- 
ual cards  which  are  distributed  to  the  classes  by  the 
secretary,  marked  by  the  teacher  or  the  class  secretary, 
and  again  collected.  The  bound  class  book  has  points 
of  merit,  but  as  a  part  of  a  record  system  which  is  to 
be  both  accurate  and  comprehensive,  it  has  features 
which  require  the  closest  supervision.  Where  the 
names  are  simply  written  in  such  a  book  it  is  very 
easy  for  a  new  scholar  to  come  direct  to  the  class  and 
some  one  write  the  name  in  the  book  without  ever 
reporting  to  the  secretary  the  fact  that  there  is  a  new 
scholar.    It  is  equally  easy  to  erase  a  name  and  thus 


S      tr    2      3      I 


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CLASS  NO. 


DEP'T. 


NAME 


ADDRESS. 


LESSON 
STUDY 


ATTO 
CHURCH 


DATE  ISSUED 


/-vtTMODlST      BOOK     CCNCtSH-NtwyOtm      CINCINNATI 


CREDIT 
MARKING 

PUT    CHECK     M*OI 
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JANUARY 


FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


APRIL 


3    4    5 


12    5    4    5 


12    3    4   5 


2     5 


This  form  is  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  school  which  prefers 
the  card  system,  but  wants  to  keep  an  individual  record  of  the  funda- 
mental features.  It  can  at  the  same  time  be  used  by  the  school  which 
merely  wants  to  punch  or  mark  the  card  to  indicate  attendance. 

37 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


XASSNO.-- 

&e(>Am  m&nt.-^^HHH 

n^^ 

txaiher                           SB 

IHM 

»«ca   by  pU««n8  th«   csrtjs  i^  the  prgp»r  c<K.Kei, 

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This  form  is  a  double  pocket  envelope,  to  contain  cards  which  are 
punched  to  indicate  attendance. 

remove  from  the  records  of  the  school  data  which  it  is 
ahiiost  impossible  to  trace.  It  also  frequently  results 
in  different  teachers  following  different  methods  of 
marking,  and  thus  having  no  uniformity  throughout 
the  school. 

The  loose-leaf  book  obviates  many  of  these  difficul- 
ties, but  requires  a  little  more  time  in  the  handling, 
both  in  the  class  and  in  the  secretary's  office.  It  is, 
however,  generally  recognized  as  being  far  preferable 
to  the  bound  book,  and  it  has  an  element  of  perma- 
nency which  the  card  system  does  not  possess. 

The  card  system,  however,  is  perhaps  the  most 
popular.  T1t«  first  element  in  the  secretary's  follow- 
up  work  is  that  of  attendance.  Where  the 
System'^  ^^^'^  system  with  the  double  pocket  class 

envelope,  one  pocket  for  the  cards  of  those 
present  and  the  other  for  the  absentees,  is  in  use,  the 
attendance  record  has  reached,  perhaps,  its  simplest 
and  quickest  form.  The  teacher  or  class  secretary 
simply    separates    the    cards    into    their    respective 

38 


CLASS  RECORDS 


pockets,  the  envelopes  are  collected  and  the  cards 
punched  by  the  secretary.  This  means  a  minimum  of 
time  and  work  in  the  class  and  all  of  the  details  are 
recorded  at  the  secretary's  office,  and  those  which  are 
necessary  are  reported  back  to  the  teacher. 


ENT-n 

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Feb.    7 

May    2 

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21 

. 

16 

28 

23 

30 

Mar.  7 

June  6 

M 

13 

21 

20 

28 

27 

Totals 

1 

1 

These   cuts   show   the   two   sides   of   a   sheet   from    a   hiose-leaf   class 
book,   providing  for  the   recording  of   the   detailed   information   for  an 
entire  year. 

Birthday .                                             church  mfmbfr                       | 

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15 

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32 

28 

29 

Sept.  8 

Dec.  5 

12 

12 

19 

19 

36 

3i 

Toui. 

39 


Secretary 

's  Record  for  Quarter  Endinsr 

^ 

** 

ROLL   OF  TEACHERS  AND   ATTENDANCE 

CLASS 

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5: 

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A  sample  sheet  from  a  very  complete  record  book  which  provides  for  the  recording  of  all 

many  denominational  reports.     See 
40 


Sundav  School 

i 

ATTENDANCE  AND   RECORD                                                                                                                                                                                                                   1 

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QUARTERLY   REPORT  OF  SECRETARY 

SUPPLIES  FOR  THE  QUARTER                                                     | 

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of  the  information  which  is  ordinarily  kept  and  covering  all  of  the  details  required  by 
pages  45  and  46  for  further  description. 

41 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

Some  schools  use  a  combination  of  these  methods, 
recording  the  attendance  by  use  of  the  card  system 
and  supplying  the  teacher  with  an  individual  record 
book  for  the  recording  of  the  various  points  of  credit. 
This  is  done  on  the  theory  that  for  each  Sunday's 
report,  which  must  of  necessity  be  made  up  early,  the 
attendance  information  alone  is  needed.  The.  second 
element  is  that  in  such  matters  as  giving  credit  for 
home  study  the  teacher  cannot  have  the  requisite  in- 
formation for  proper  grading  until  after  the  recitation 
is  heard. 

The  starting  point  is,  of  course,  attendance,  and  the 
other  phases  can  be  added  as  rapidly  as  it  is  found 
desirable.  The  fundamental  element  is  absolute  ac- 
curacy, for  without  this  the  records  lose  their  main 
value.  No  matter  how  the  information  is  recorded, 
it  should  be  done  under  the  supervision  of  the  general 
secretary,  and  there  should  be  uniformity  throughout 
the  school. 

Referring  again  to  the  follow-up  of  the  new  mem- 
ber; in  most  of  the  systems  it  is  possible  to  use  a  dif- 
ferent colored  card  or  sheet  for  the  new  member, 
changing  to  the  standard  color  when  regularity  of 
attendance  is  shown  or  when  the  member  is  placed  on 
the  active  roll  of  the  school.  Supposing  the  double 
pocket  envelope  and  individual  card  to  be  in  use,  and 
the  new  member's  name  put  on  a  red  card  at  the  time 
of  enrollment,  all  the  secretary  has  to  do  is  to  run 
through  the  red  cards  which  are  in  the  pocket  marked 
"Absent"  and  a  very  few  minutes  each  Sunday  will 
suffice  to  keep  accurate  watch  on  the  new  members. 
Where  the  bound  class  book  is  used  the  location  in  the 
book  will  indicate  the  new  scholar  and  make  it  very 
easy  to  see  whether  attendance  is  being  reported. 

42 


CLASS  RECORDS 


1 

EFFICIENCY  SYSTEM  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  CLASS  RECORDS.                             SUMMARY 

(PHI  oat  thi*  bUak  ia  duplicate  aad  tarn  in  orlsiaai  eopr  with  dan  book  to  th«  Gcacral  Soerctery  of  th«  Sanday  School.)                                                                      SHE  ET 
T,.^*^                                                                                           Sabotltnto  Teacher 

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THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

In  any  event  the  secretary  should  keep  a  thorough 
check — know  whether  the  new  member  is  attending 
Value  regularly;    secure    from    the    individual 

to  Super-  teacher  the  reason  for  nonattendance ; 
inten  en  report  to  the  superintendent  those  classes 

which  are  holding  the  new  members  assigned  to  them 
and  those  which  are  failing  in  this  respect ;  indicate  the 
teachers  and  the  classes  which  are  cooperating  in  this 
general  school  policy  of  follow-up;  tabulate  the  rea- 
sons for  nonattendance  as  reported,  etc.  When  this 
information  is  coupled  with  data  as  to  whether  these 
new  scholars  come  from  Christian  homes,  and  there  is 
all  of  the  other  information  which  will  throw  light  on 
the  problem,  the  superintendent  is  enabled  to  know  his 
school,  its  needs,  its  problems,  its  strength,  its  weak- 
ness, as  would  never  be  possible  without  the  assistance 
of  the  modern  Sunday  school  secretary. 

In  the  final  recording  of  the  information  which 
comes  from  the  class  records  there  is  again  a  wide 
range  of  choice  of  methods  and  forms.  Some  schools 
merely  file  the  attendance  cards  as  this  part  of  the 
school  records.  Where  the  card  system  is  used  the 
cards  are  usually  punched  by  the  secretary,  and  one 
little  suggestion  in  connection  with  this  may  be  help- 
ful. Apparently  on  the  theory  that  there  are  sup- 
posed to  be  a  larger  number  present  than  absent,  the 
custom  has  grown  up  for  punching  the  cards  to  show 
absence.  Where  any  system  of  giving  credit,  for  any 
purpose  whatever,  is  in  force,  if  a  card  is  punched 
when  the  scholar  is  absent,  there  is  no  chance  to  cor- 
rect the  record,  providing,  of  course,  the  card  record 
is  the  only  one.  If  the  punch  is  for  attendance  and 
an  excused  absence  is  reported,  the  card  can  be  taken 
out  and  properly  punched. 

44 


CLASS  RECORDS 

While  the  veiy  large  school  will  distribute  the  work 
among  the  department  secretaries,  having  these  attend 
The  t^  ^^1  o^  tl^^  details  in  their  respective  de- 

Permanent      partments    and    simply    report    weekly 
totals  to  the  general  secretary,  the  aver- 
age school  simply  has  the  one  official  doing  all  of  the 


jMdiy  School  9:30  A.  M. 

TcacKcrt  and  Officert 


TEACHERS  QUARTEI 
On  Cliii  Orjti 


CUu  No. 

Name! 

OScen  elected  for  querler 

endini   _ 

Preiidenl 

Vice-Preildent 

Secftury 

Treiiurer 

Commiltte. 

Speci6«d  lime  of 

l<»  bu.inea  meel, 

Type  ot  Social  Service  Adopled  for 


Do  you  h«ve  i 


Amouni  handled  by  claw 


QUARTERLY  REPORT  OF  CI 
Date  of  function 


No.  preieni 


No.  committee  meetinfia  i 


nbert  of  church 


Number  converted  but  not  men 
What  efforli  have  you  made  in  your 


Do  you  urije  church  atleodance? 


JTirst  S^tttoiist  Spfscopal  ^unOap  %ctool 
fiDrcatnr.  JIKnoftf 

S.ndiy  School  9:30  A.  M.  Teachera  and  Officer.  Prayer  Meellni  SiS  A.  M. 

Teachera  and  Officcra  Training  Station  Wcdncaday.  6:45  P.  M. 

TEACHER'S  WEEKLY  REPORT  TO  THE  GENERAL  OFFICE 
Claia  No. (See  Claaabook J        Date 


No.  Tardy 


Change  of  Addreia:  Name 


NOTICE  OF  CHANGE  IN  ENROLLMENT 


recommend  that 


be  dropped  from  the  active  enrollment  of  the  tchool.     Reason 


Approved 

No.    vitila    (by    teacher    or    clasa    member)    in   the 


of   the   clasa   during    week 


Suggetled  changea  on  the  enrollment  card  of  any  member 


Showing  a  weekly  and  monthly  report  to  be  made  by  the  individual 
teacher.  If  each  school  could  have  such  detailed  records,  the  efficiency 
of  the  work  could  be  greatly  increased. 

45 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


FonnM- Individual  Member'.  Record              U- Th,«  Ye»™             CCardSyrteo")    P«  100 60centi. 

Visitor 

Sh-«.»  Nn                                                                                        1 

1 

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Lnaons 

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School 

Conlribu- 

2d  Year 

Le»oa. 
Studied 

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Attended 

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MEMORANDA 

Reaion  (or  %vilhdrawa)  oi  traoif 

TraoJeneJ 

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ck  of  card.                                                                                                                                                                 1 
dealer  or  bylhe  Nteigi  PubUJuag  Company.  IndianapolU.  Indiana 

A  card  record,  to  be  filled  out  from  the  quarterly  reports,  providing 
for  the  recording  of  detailed  information  for  a  period  of  years.  Offer- 
ing valuable  comparisons. 


work,  and  the  information  is  recorded  in  a  standard 
secretary's  record  book.  The  forms  illustrated  show 
one  of  these  books  which  is,  of  course,  especially  pre- 
pared for  Methodist  Sunday  schools,  as  it  provides  for 
information  required  by  that  particular  denomination. 
The  forms  used  throughout  the  various  denomina- 
tions are  all  similar.     (For  illustration,  see  page  40.) 

In  addition  to  this  particular  style  of  book,  nearly 
every  house  publishing  Sunday  school  supplies,  as  well 
as  several  individuals,  issues  special  books  for  Sun- 
day school  records,  some  of  them  bound  volumes  and 
others  loose-leaf  forms.  The  secretary  would  do  well 
to  familiarize  himself  with  these  various  forms  and 
select  the  one  which  is  best  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
particular  system  which  is  being  worked  out.  Care 
should  be  taken  to  see  that  there  is  a  place  for  all  of 
the  information  which  he  will  be  required  to  furnish 

46 


CLASS  RECORDS 

and  still  have  the  system  just  as  simple  as  is  compat- 
ible with  the  necessary  detail. 

Some  schools  use  a  specially  ruled  book  and  record 
all  of  the  details  of  each  individual  member's  record, 
each  Sunday.  This  is,  of  course,  technically,  a  part 
of  the  record  and  history  of  the  Sunday  school,  but 
especially  in  the  large  school  some  wa}^  will  pro])ably 
be  sought  to  simplify  this  detail  which  would  take  so 
much  time. 

Where  the  school  is  large  and  the  work  is  done  by 
departments,  each  department  secretary  usually  lias 
a  loose-leaf  form  somewhat  similar  to  the  one  illus- 
trated in  the  bound-book  form,  which  is  kept  up  by  the 
department  secretary  and  turned  in  to  the  office  at  the 
close  of  tlie  montli  or  (juarter,  as  the  forms  maj^  pro- 
vide, and  then  put  into  tlie  loose-leaf  binder,  becoming 
a  part  of  the  permanent  records. 

Some  secretaries  condense  all  of  the  day's  data  onco 
a  simple  card  form  which  shows  all  of  the  essential 
details  and  is  easily  filed  and  easily  referred  to.  Of 
course,  in  such  cases,  all  of  the  other  data  are  contained 
in  other  record  forms,  and  the  card  merely  shows  that 
which  is  most  frequently  wanted  for  report  or  refer- 
ence purposes. 

In  this  detail,  again,  the  correct  process  is  to  study 
the  fundamentals,  determine  what  details  are  best 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  individual  school,  select 
the  system  which  will  most  nearly  conform  to  this,  and 
then  faithfully  follow  up  the  careful  recording  of  the 
data  which  have  been  determined  upon. 


47 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 

The  study  of  causes  and  the  development  of  pre- 
ventive methods  are  ahiiost  an  uncultivated  field  and 
Importance  o^^^*  great  opportunities  for  the  secre- 
tary to  be  of  service  to  the  school.  There 
can  be  no  possible  argument  over  the  value  of  knowing 
the  reason  for  continued  absence  fi'om  any  school,  be 
it  small  or  large.  In  the  school  witli  small  enrollment, 
however,  there  is  the  feeling  tliat  everyone  knows 
everyone  else  and  that  no  records  are  necessary,  while 
in  the  school  with  tlie  large  ern-ollment  tfie  force  of 
mere  numbers  seems  to  overshadow  the  importance  of 
following  up  each  individual  member. 

The  secretary  will  naturally  view  this  problem  from 
a  different  and  perhaps  broader  angle  than  will  the 
individual  teacher  or  the  individual  class.  The  fact 
that  the  teacher  may  know  the  reasons  in  the  case  of 
the  one  class  will  help  in  the  management  of  that 
single  class,  but  it  is  the  compilation  of  the  reasons 
from  all  classes  which  puts  the  problem  in  its  correct 
setting  for  the  attention  of  the  proper  executive  offi- 
cial, and  which  really  determines  whether  these  ab- 
sences are  a  class  or  a  school  problem. 

Careful  surveys  show  that  very  few  teachers  really 
do  follow  up  the  absent  members,  at  least  until  the 
absence  has  been  very  long  continued.  In  one  school, 
where  special  emphasis  had  been  put  on  this  phase  of 
a  teacher's  obligations,  a  report  was  secured  from 
every  teacher  present  at  a  teachers'  meeting  (and  usu- 

48 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


ABSENTEE  REPORT— Form  No.  2 


s.s. 


Date. 


Dear  Teacher: 

Our  records  do  not 

reason  of  the  absence  of_ 


show  any  answer  to  the  request  for  the 


If  you  have  secured  this  information  will  you  not  kindly  let  us 
have  it,  as  it  forms  a  very  important  part  of  our  record.  If  the  former 
request  has  been  overlooked  we  are  sure  that  it  will  now  have  your 
attention.  If  you  cannot  secvire  the  information,  for  any  reason, 
please  report  that  fact  so  that  we  may  cooperate  with  you  in  this  very 
vital  phase  of  our  work. 


The  Metbodiat  Book  Concero.     New  York-Cincinnati. 


These  two  forms  are  part  of  a  follow^-up  system  designed  to  secure 
the  following  up  of  absentees  by  the  class  or  by  the  teacher. 


ABSENTEE  REPORT— Form  No.  1 


Date 

.Teacher  of  Class  number_ 


.S.S, 


Our  records  show  that 

has  not  been  present  at  out  Sunday  School  since_ 

If  this  is  correct,  will  you  please  make  a  personal  investigation  this 
week  and  ascertain  the  reason  for  the  absence.  Kindly  use  the 
blanl^s  below  for  your  report  and  return  same  next  Sunday. 


The  Methodi«t  Book  ConceMi.     New  Yprk-Ci 


49 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

ally  the  most  faithful  teachers  are  found  at  such  a 
meeting)  as  to  whether  or  not  they  knew  the  reasons 
for  the  absences  from  their  classes  on  the  preceding 
Sunday.  Just  four  out  of  the  eighty-two  answered  in 
the  affirmative. 

There  is  another  phase  of  this  matter  which  gives 
added  reason  for  the  supervision  of  the  secretar3\ 
There  are  manj'^  teachers  who  are  thoroughly  con- 
scientious, according  to  their  individual  viewpoints, 
who  entirely  fail  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  close 
personal  touch  with  each  scholar,  outside  the  class- 
I'oom.  Every  secretary,  and  especially  those  in  the 
larger  schools,  knows  that  the  teacher  who  has  that 
personal  interest  in  every  member  of  the  class  which 
makes  an  unexplained  absence  impossible  has  but  few 
absences  from  the  class,  and  those  almost  invariably 
for  good  reason. 

Then  there  is  the  class  where  the  membership  is  so 
large  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  ordinary 
teacher  to  do  this  work  unaided.  In  these  classes  there 
is  usually  a  membership  committee,  sometimes  active 
and  sometimes  needing  the  frequent  reminder  from 
the  secretary.  Any  class,  however,  which  is  so  large 
that  it  cannot,  in  some  way,  follow  up  its  absent  mem- 
bers by  means  of  its  own  organization,  needs  some 
kind  of  treatment.  An  amputation  may  be  necessary ; 
there  may  be  an  obstructed  vision,  the  directing  brain 
may  not  be  working  rightly,  or  tlie  class  nerves  may 
fail  to  carry  the  right  impulse.  In  any  event,  where 
stagnation  occurs,  there  is  need  for  the  services  of  the 
executive  officers  of  the  school,  and  the  secretary,  with 
the  knowledge  gained  by  the  records,  is  the  most  reli- 
able individual  to  diagnose  the  case,  whoever  may 
treat  it. 

50 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


ST.  PAUL'S 
M.  E.  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

REV.   A.   M.  JAYNE.  Pasto-* 

C.    E     TUTTLE.  SUPEBINTENOENT 


Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa, 


This  is  t-j  tell  you  that  we  missed  you  from  the  class  last  Sunday.  I  hope 
you  were  not  ill  and  that  we  shall  have  you  with  us  next  Sunday,  for  we  are 
endeavoring  to  make  ours  an  ''Every  Member  Present"  Class.  Kindly  drop 
me  a  card  U  you  are  ill,  or  if  for  any  reason  you  cannot  he  present  next 
Sunday. 

Your  friend  and  teacher. 


Address 


The  form  used  by  one  school  for  keeping  in  ttuich  with  al)sentees. 
By  the  use  of  the  out  of  the  church  they  give  a  personal  interest  to 
the  matter. 


Jirat  ^rpabatrrian  MxbU  ^rliool,  (Hoprka.  Kan. 

REV.  S.  S.  ESTEY.  D.  D..  Paator. 


SICKNESS    EXCUSE   CARD 


I  was  absent  from  Sunday  School  on  the  following  dates 

because,  1 1  was  really  too  sick  to  come. 

2 contagious  disease  in  our  family. 


Pupil's  Name 

Address 

Parent's  Name — 
Teacher's  Name- 


Used  in  recording  absence  due  to  sickness.    This  permits  credit  where 
it  is  deserved  and  yet  i)roperly  safeguards  the  report. 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

In  all  of  these  cases  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  secre- 
tary, either  individually  in  the  smaller  school  or 
through  the  necessary  assistants  in  the  larger  one,  to 
keep  in  touch  with  all  of  these  conditions,  to  help, 
influence,  stimulate,  direct,  encourage,  or  possibly  al- 
most venture  to  reprove,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Where  the  study  of  the  class  record  shows  contin- 
ued absence  the  secretary  should  have  the  blanks — 
which  are  available  in  many  forms,  sim- 
Methods  ^^^^'  ^^  those  illustrated — to  use  in  asking 

for  this  information  from  teacher,  class 
committee,  or  individual  worker.  If  the  school  is  so 
fortunate  as  to  have  a  school  visitor  or  visitors,  salaried 
or  volunteer ;  if  the  messenger  service  is  used ;  if  older 
classes  will  look  after  absences  among  the  children,  the 
work  of  the  teacher  can  be  supplemented  or  the  secre- 
tary has  this  assistance  to  fall  back  on  in  case  the 
teacher  fails  in  the  work ;  but  the  teacher  is  the  first  one 
to  approach  for  the  information.  Frankly,  the  effect 
on  the  teacher  is  sometimes  as  great  as  on  the  scholar. 
Many  a  teacher  has  sought  this  information  simply  to 
be  accommodating  to  the  secretary,  and,  by  the  investi- 
gation, has  received  a  vision  which  has  made  all  such 
requests  unnecessary  in  the  future.  In  fact,  it  is  not 
wise  to  even  tell  the  teacher  that  the  absence  can  be 
investigated  in  some  other  way,  at  least  when  the  first 
request  is  made.  The  responsibility  belongs  with  the 
teacher,  and  should  be  kept  there  when  it  is  at  all  pos- 
sible to  do  this. 

There  is  a  wealth  of  postcards,  form  letters,  and 
plan  after  plan  for  use  of  the  teacher  in  making  this 
investigation.  Where  these  are  used  in  the  school  the 
secretary  or  the  assistant  in  direct  charge,  should  at- 
tend to  the  disbursement  so  that  there  may  be  a  record 

52 


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THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

of  the  teachers  who  are  and  who  are  not  using  them, 
for  by  means  of  this  the  efficacy  of  each  particular  plan 
may  be  traced.  Wherever  possible,  the  teacher  should 
be  induced  to  make  a  personal  visit ;  the  next  best  thing 
is  a  little  individual  note  or  a  telephone  call,  and  the 
"made-to-order"  methods  are  only  a  last  resort. 

The  study  of  absences  is  a  part  of  the  follow-up 
system  of  the  well-organized  school,  and  it  is  also  one 
of  the  important  steps  in  the  promotion 
Absence?^  of  regularity  of  attendance.  It  is  in 
this  second  phase  that  the  question  arises, 
"Shall  we  give  credit  for  absence,  under  any  condi- 
tions?" There  are  some  who  answer  this  with  an 
unqualified  "No,"  but  the  general  trend  of  those  who 
have  tried  out  both  methods  fairly  and  thoroughly  is 
toward  using  the  necessary  safeguards  and  then  say- 
ing "Yes."  The  "No"  is  usually  based  on  the  expe- 
riences of  having  the  privilege  abused,  and,  especially 
where  the  record  is  used  in  some  contest  feature,  it  is 
admittedly  difficult  to  avoid  having  some  very  minor 
ailment  or  the  opportunity  for  some  personal  gratifica- 
tion reported  as  a  valid  excuse. 

Perhaps  the  best  solution  is  to  use  two  different 
expressions.  Some  schools  call  every  class  with  every 
member  actually  present  as  having  a  "perfect  record," 
and  those  with  every  member  either  present  at  the 
home  school,  or  some  other  school,  or  detained  at  home 
by  a  properly  certified  case  of  sickness  a  "Star  Class." 
Others  call  the  first  class  a  "Gold  Star  Class"  and  the 
second  a  "Silver  Star  Class."  In  either  case  emphasis 
is  laid  on  the  fact  that  both  are  honor  classes. 

The  credit  for  attendance  at  some  other  school  or 
for  absence  due  to  sickness,  undoubtedly  appeals  to 
the  children  as  more  nearly  "fair  play,"  because  they 

54 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


A  WEEKLY  REPORT 
TO  THE  SUPERINTENDENT 

OF  ABSENTEES  CLASS  No. 

Teacher 


Dale 191 


CLASS  PRAYER  "O  Lord:  make  at  all  Faithful  and  True,  to  Thee,  to  our  Teacher  and 
to  our  Classmates.  Help  us  to  remember  every  Sunday  that  if  any  one  of  us  is  either 
absent  or  tardy,  it  reduces  our  averaee  Clan  Record,  for  the  entire  year,  and  discredits 
the  Class  as  a  whole.    Amen. " 

The  Following  Members  of  my  Class  were  Absent  Today: 

Where  the  reason  for  absence  is  known  it  is  stated.  You  may  rely  upon 
me  to  personally  see  to  it  that  the  persons  I  have  marked  with  an  X  will  be  vis- 
ited before  the  end  of  the  week,  either  by  myself  or  a  friend,  or,  by  one  or  more 
members  of  the  Class,  or,  will  receive  a  Post  Card  notice.  Where  an  X  is 
omitted  it  signifies  that,  for  reasons,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  attend  to  the  case  my- 
self, this  week  or  get  any  one  else  to.  If  no  name  appears  below,  it  signifies 
ALL  PFIELSENT.  Number  of  Personal  Calls  made  last  week Num- 
ber made  by  members  of  the  Class .     Number  of  Post  Cards  sent . 

REPORT 

Number  enrolled  in  my  Class Present  today .     Tardy 

Absent . 

Name. . 


1.  Wliy  absent- 
Name- 

2.  Why? 


Why>. 
Name ; . 

6.  Why? 

NOTE — Write  additional  names  and  information,  if  any,  on  reverse  side 
TEACHER'S  Report  of  Absentees,  meigs  publishing  co.  inoianapolis,  ind. 
form  No.  y,  price  4oc  per  100,  postpaid 


A  form  for  the  teacher's  report  on  absentees.  The  great  number  of 
these  in  use  indicate  the  growing  value  which  is  being  placed  on  the 
study  of  absentees. 


55 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

probably  cannot  avoid  the  absence  by  anything  which 
they  can  do.  Where  this  credit  is  given,  a  certificate 
of  attendance  at  the  other  school  should  be  required, 
and  in  the  case  of  sickness,  with  children,  the  excuse 
card  should  be  signed  by  the  parents.  Do  not  be 
afraid  of  this  degree  of  formality.  If  the  credit  is 
worth  working  for,  it  takes  on  an  added  value  when 
it  must  be  regularly  certified,  and,  with  the  parents, 
such  a  request  is  accepted  as  exceptional  interest  on 
the  part  of  the  school. 

Some  one  says,  however,  '^'Why  give  credit?"    Keep 
in  mind  the  fact  that  the  secretary  is  working  for 

regularity  of  attendance,  primarily  for 
Credit?^^^         the  possibilities  of  increased  efficiency  in 

class  work.  The  properly  kept  records 
of  any  school  will  show  a  far  different  grade  of  class 
work  where  there  is  ninety  to  one  hundred  per  cent  of 
attendance  than  where  it  drops  to  the  average  fifty 
per  cent.  An  unbroken  attendance  record  is  a  strong 
incentive  to  continued  regularity,  no  matter  whether 
the  motive  be  the  winning  of  some  offered  prize,  the 
expression  of  appreciation  which  the  wise  secretary 
does  not  overlook,  a  real  desire  to  get  the  greatest 
good  from  the  lesson  study,  or  merely  the  fun  of  seeing 
how  long  such  a  record  can  be  maintained.  Even  the 
"grown-ups"  take  pride  in  such  an  achievement  as 
year  after  year  is  added  to  an  unbroken  record,  and 
the  value  of  this  regularity  both  to  scholar  and  class 
and  school  is  worth  all  it  takes  to  keep  the  record 
recorded  and  recognized.  When,  however,  an  attend- 
ance record  is  started,  and  sickness  comes  and  a  Sun- 
day is  missed,  and  the  child  is  told  that  there  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  attaining  to  some  coveted  honor  or  recog- 
nition for  the  month  or  quarter  or  year,  the  enthusiasm 

56 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


Sundays  we  have  miss- 
ed you  in  your  accustomed  place  in  your  class.  We  hope  to 
have  you  with  us  next  Sunday  ag-ain,  and  enjoy  your  hearty  co- 
operation and  assistance  YOU  are  a  LINK  in  our  chain,  and 
vour  absence  aflfects  our  school  more  than  you  would  suppose.  S 
it  is  YOUR  school.  MY  school.  OUR  school,  and  may  YOU  and  ^ 
I  do  all  in  our  power  to  make  it  what  THE  MASTER  would 
have  it  to  be  May  HE  g-uide  us  in  it  all,  to  wise  conclusions. 
''Come  thou  with  us  and  we  will  do  thee  g-ood." 

Very  Sincerly  yours, 
E.  Ag-nes  Dean,  Asst.  Supt.  W.  G.  McCune,  Supt. 


Another  school  which  publishes  many  of  its  owu  forms,  thus  making 
a  strong  appeal  to  its  members. 


ABSENTEE  CARD 
FIRST  METHODIST  SUNDAY  SCHOOL,  INDIANOLA,  IOWA 

NAME CLASS  . 

ADDRESS ; 

1  Jan.  1  Feb.  |  Mar.  |  Apr.  |  May  |  June 

July 

Aug.  1  Sep.  1  Oct.  1  Nov. 

Dec. 

First 

Sunday 

Second 

Sunday 

Third 

Sunday 

Fourth 

Sunday 

Fifth „ 

Sunday 

Dropped  from  roll... 191 Cause | 

A  rather  unusual  but  very  effective  card,  giving  opportunity  for  the 
study  of  the  absences  of  the  members.  When  this  card  begins  to  fill  up 
there  is  not  much  doubt  but  that  the  reason  for  the  increasing  absences 
will  be  carefully  sought. 

57 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

is  gone,  the  effort  is  relaxed,  and  the  slightest  excuse 
is  enough  to  cause  repeated  absence.  It  is  really  far 
easier  to  prevent  a  great  many  absences  than  it  is  to 
trace  them  after  they  occur,  or  to  bring  back  the 
scholar. 

Out-of-town  absences,  business  trips,  summer  vaca- 
tions, draw  heavily  on  the  attendance  of  many  schools 
during  certain  seasons,  and  the  secretary  finds  a  new 
problem.  Are  we  to  say  to  our  members  that  our 
interest  in  them  ceases  when  they  are  away,  that  their 
record  in  the  home  school  cannot  be  maintained  ?  We 
are  learning  far  better  than  that.  Practically  the 
only  question  is  that  of  the  method  which  is  best  suited 
to  the  needs  of  the  individual  school,  and  school  policy 
and  finance  will  govern  this. 

In  some  sections,  we  find  members  removing  to 
summer  homes  and  attending  the  same  school  Sunday 
after  Sunday.  In  these  cases,  a  card  form 
RecordT  oi*  little  booklet  which  provides  for  the 

record  for  a  number  of  Sundays,  answers 
every  purpose.  In  otlier  cases,  the  members  are  at- 
tending a  different  school  practically  every  Sunday, 
and  the  keeping  of  the  record  and  especially  its  return 
to  the  home  school,  becomes  a  very  real  problem. 

On  this  account,  many  schools  are  using  a  form 
which  is  printed  either  on  a  government  postcard  or 
a  card  which  can  be  returned  in  the  same  way,  some 
schools  even  going  to  the  extent  of  furnishing  the 
return  postage,  in  order  to  get  the  cards  returned 
promptly.  Where  a  card  is  used  for  every  Sunday, 
it  has  been  proven  to  be  almost  impossible  to  get  these 
kept  by  the  member  and  returned  at  the  close  of  the 
vacation  period. 

The  point  which  needs  particular  emphasis  in  this 

58 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


"ETigitor^fli  attenliance  Certificate 


ISSUED  BY  THE 


OF 


To    (name; 


Pointa  of  cj-edit  (if  Jesirtd). 


Date Signed- 


Superintendent.  Secret«ry  or  Tei 


^^ma= 


The  M«lhodi8l  Book  Concern.      New  York-Cincinna 


A  certificate   of  attendauce   which  can   be   carried  by  the  scholar  to 
another  school  or  can  be  issued  by  any  school  to  visitors. 


I  attended Sunday  School 


at... - ,  - >  on 

TOWN  STATE  DATE 


Class  No Signed 

The  enrollment  of  this  school  is 

The  attendance  today  was 

Mail  will  reach  me  if  addressed  to. 


If  possible  send  us  a  post  card  showing  the  church  or  some  feature  of  interest  in  the 
place  you  are  visiting. 


The  original  of  this  form  is  printed  on  a  government  postcard,  and  is 
given  to  the  members  of  the  school  whenever  they  leave  for  trips  or 
vacations.  A  card  is  mailed  back  each  week,  and  this  close  touch  with 
the  home  school  has  proven  very  valuable. 

59 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


1111)13  Uiill  ^nfro^urf  to  jioiK 


tDl)o  is  a      lojal 
member  of 

^Ijc  #unba5  ^tliool 
of  tlje 

first  Methodist  [piscopal  Cliurcli 

Topeka,  Kansas 


^mi  fDurtcsits  txirnbrii  to  our 
mrml<rr  tolple  uisitinit  otiicr  srlioola 
hiill  be  appreciated  anb  rorbiallg  re- 

riprocatcb  slioulii  tlje  opportunitp  permit.     Wt  tnoulb  be  {ilab  to  excbangc  information,  Buppestions,  or 

plana  iuitl|  ang  otijer  bcIjooI. 


^ecretarg 


A  card  of  introduction  which  is  given  to  all  members  of  this  school 
when  they  are  going  to  be  away  from  home.  It  keeps  the  home  school 
always  in  the  mind  of  the  absent  scholar  and  secures  a  welcome  in  any 
school  visited. 


First  M.  E.   Sunday  School,   Petoskey,   Michigan 
GREETINGS: 

This  Certifies  That 

is  a  Loyal  member  of  the  First  Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday  School,  at 

Petoskey,  Michigan. 

Date Supt. 


We  note  with  pleasure  the  attendance  of - 

.at  our  Sunday  School  this. 

day  of    19 

of  the Sunday  School  at 


-Supt. 


A  certificate  of  attendance  which  is  issued  to  all  visitors  by  a  very 
aggressive  Sunday  school. 

60 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSENCES 


Envelope 

If  you  are  obliged  to  be  absent  from 
the  Bible  School  during  the  summer, 
please  place  in  this  envelope  the  amount 
you  would  have  ^iven  had  you  been  present. 


When  you  return  in  the  Fait  please  brin^  this  envelope 
and  hand  same  to  yourTeadier  or  thelreasurer  of  the  School. 


m 


GOOOENOUGH   6c  WOGLOM  CO.  122  NASSAU  ST..N.Y. 


An  envelope  which  is  given  to  members  when  leaving  on 
vacations,  with  the  request  that  thoir  regular  collection  be 
placed  in  it  each  week. 

Gl 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

phase  of  the  work  is  that  the  real  purpose  is  not  to 
maintain  the  records  of  the  individual 
school,  although  that  is  desirable.  Some- 
thing which  will  act  as  an  incentive  to  Sunday  school 
attendance  while  away  from  home,  and  which  will  help 
give  the  scholars  some  real  interest  in  the  school  vis- 
ited, is  particularly  valuable.  Where  the  report  card 
calls  for  little  items  of  enrollment,  collection,  attend- 
ance, etc.,  the  visitor  really  has  something  to  do. 
Where  it  is  possible  to  get  reports  on  plans  and 
metliods  used  in  these  other  schools,  these  vacation 
visits  can  be  invaluable.  Another  underlying  prin- 
ciple is  that  by  keeping  this  touch  with  the  absent 
scholar  tlie  j^roblem  of  losses  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fall  season  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Schools  which 
have  followed  this  matter  very  thoroughly  report  that 
there  is  no  longer  any  problem  in  getting  the  children 
back  into  the  Sunday  school  at  the  close  of  the  summer 
vacation. 

For  schools  that  are  willing  to  go  even  more  inten- 
sively into  this  work  there  are  the  suggestions  of  reg- 
ular cards  of  introduction ;  the  securing  of  addresses ; 
the  notifying  of  the  teacher  and  class  as  to  the  where- 
abouts of  absent  members;  getting  teacher  and  class 
to  send  greetings  to  the  members  of  their  class;  occa- 
sional notes  or  letters  from  the  secretary's  office,  giv- 
ing interesting  bits  of  school  news,  etc. 

For  the  home  folks  a  map  hung  on  the  wall  marking 
the  location  of  the  absent  members,  a  display  of  post- 
cards sent  in  by  the  travelers,  the  passing  on  to  the 
school  of  interesting  bits  of  information  contained  in 
tlie  reports  from  the  absentee,  and  various  other  sim- 
ilar features  tend  to  link  the  school  together. 

ISTo  school  is  too  large  or  too  small  to  follow  some 

62 


THE  STUDY  OF  ABSEXCES 

method  of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  scholars,  showing 
its  interest  in  them  and  in  those  things  which  interest 
them. 

Many  schools  add  a  "summer  vacation"  envelope  to 
the  supply  of  cards,  and  find  that  the  money  secured  in 
this  way  is  well  worth  the  effort  it  takes  in  keeping  the 
whole  plan  moving. 


CHAPTER  VI 
WITHDRAWALS— THE  PROBLEM 

The  word  "withdrawal"  brings  the  secretary  face 
to  face  with  the  greatest  problem  and  at  the  same  time 
the  greatest  opportnnity  to  be  of  service 
Feature  ^^  ^^^^  individnal  school  and  to  the  whole 

Sunday  school  world.  There  is  probably 
no  phase  of  Sunday  school  record-keeping  which  is  so 
important.  Not  only  is  it  true  that  a  large  per  cent  of 
the  reported  withdrawals  can  be  brought  back  by  the 
efforts  of  the  secretary's  office,  but  a  study  of  the  rea- 
sons given  for  withdrawal  will  enable  the  executive 
officers  of  tlie  Sunday  school  to  know  the  weakness  of 
a  teacher,  a  department,  or,  it  may  be,  the  whole  school 
policy,  as  nothing  else  will  do.  An  accurate  list  of  the 
reasons  for  withdrawal  in  any  Sundaj^  school  will  form 
the  most  vital  part  of  the  records  of  that  Sunday 
school.  It  is  far  more  important  to  know  how  many 
withdraw  from  the  school  on  a  certain  Sunday,  and 
the  reasons  for  those  withdrawals,  than  it  is  to  know 
the  number  who  are  present. 

In  order  that  the  secretary  may  have  the  vision  of 
this  problem,  which  is  necessary  in  properly  forming 
jjQ  the  local  school  plans,  a  study  of  general 

Accurate  conditions  is  valuable.    If  we  can  but  real- 

^^*^  ize  that,   in  the  main  essentials,  nearly 

every  school  is  an  average  school,  we  have  made  a 
start.  The  survey  made  during  the  Men  and  Reli- 
gion Campaign  brought  back  the  report  that  eighty 

64 


WITHDRAWALS^THE  PROBLEM 

thousand  out  of  every  one  hundred  thousand  boys 
in  the  Sunday  school  dropped  out  before  the  close 
of  the  teen-age  period.  No  general  statistics  as  to 
Sunday  scliool  withdrawals  in  total,  or  as  to  the  rea- 
sons for  these  withdrawals,  are  available.  Neither  de- 
nominational nor  International  Sunday  School  Asso- 
ciation reports  call  for  such  information.  Some  local 
surveys  have  ])een  made,  but  many  of  these  show  only 
local  conditions. 

At  the  great  Superintendents'  Congress,  held  dur- 
ing the  International  Sunday  School  Convention  of 
1914,  the  question  was  raised  as  to  how  many  of  those 
superintendents  could  furnish  a  list,  not  from  memory, 
but  from  the  records  of  their  schools  after  returning 
home,  of  the  number  of  witlidrawals  and  the  reasons, 
during  the  past  year.  Out  of  the  hundreds  present 
five  thought  that  they  could  do  so,  but  not  one  ever 
made  the  report.  Tests  made  in  school  after  school, 
and  convention  after  convention,  have  failed  to  find  a 
single  response  where  an  absolutely  complete  list  was 
furnished.  When  the  question  is  raised  as  to  how  long 
a  name  should  he  kept  on  the  records  after  the  scholar 
stops  coming,  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  answers  will 
rdn  from  three  weeks  to  six  months,  and  just  here  and 
there  occasionally  is  found  the  superintendent  who 
says,  "Until  the  reason  is  known." 

In  order  that  the  secretary  may  survey  the  field, 
the  following  diagram,  showing  the  main  reasons  for 
withdrawal,  is  given.  The  secretary  who  will  so  study 
tlie  school  as  to  determine  through  which  of  these  lines 
of  exit  the  most  of  the  scholars  of  that  school  are  pass- 
ing will  be  in  position  to  place  before  the  executive 
officers  information  which,  if  properly  used,  will  revo- 
lutionize that  school. 

65 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


Withdrawal 
Chart 

1.  Home 


Negative  Church  Members, 
Positive  Nonchurch  Members. 


2.  Environments 


Chums. 

Day  School  Associates. 

Community  Influences. 


3.  "Teenism' 


Overdevelopment    of   the    natural    teen   age   child 
characteristics.     A    sociological    rather    than    a 
local  school  problem,  but  demonstrating  the  need 
[      for  an  awakening. 


4.  Local  School 


Teacher 


No 
Teaclier 


Management 


(d) 
Building  and 
Equipment 


Inefficient 
Handicapped 


Untrained. 
Incapable. 
By  -C." 
By     !)." 


Carelessness  due  to  "C." 

{Parents. 
Cliurch  Mem- 
bership. 
[  No  Training  Course. 


Handicapped  by  "D." 
Untrained  Leadership. 
Limitations  of  time,  business. 

{Discipline. 
Program. 
Curriculum. 

Failure  of  church  to  realize  needs. 
Financial  Limitations. 


5.  Inter-school         < 


Work 
Health 


Educational 


Change  of 
Residence 


Both  intended  as  temporary  with- 
drawals, but  became  permanent. 

Leaving  Home  for  School. 
Parents'  objections  to  heavy  work 
during  Day  School  term. 


So-called  "Rest"  "Vacation." 
Failure  of  former  school  to  make 

work  sufliciently  attractive. 
Lack  of  aggressiveness  or  cordial- 
ity in  new  community. 


66 


WITHDRAWALS— THE  PROBLEM 

In  so  far  as  the  responsibility  of  the  local  school  is 
concerned,  withdrawals  for  some  of  these  reasons  are 
to  be  expected.  "Teenism"  will  take  some,  regardless 
of  all  of  the  efforts  of  the  local  school.  The  last,  or 
fifth,  group  offers  so  many  opportunities  for  a  with- 
drawal apparently  listed  for  a  good  reason  that  it  is 
an  unexpected  danger  point.  While  thirty  per  cent  is 
too  large  a  loss  to  be  viewed  complacently,  a  school 
which  will  hold  seventy  per  cent  of  its  membership  for 
a  five-year  period,  which  is  long  enough  to  judge  it 
accurately  through  its  records,  scores  unusually  high. 
Any  school  grading  less  than  that  seventy  per  cent 
shoidd  "get  busy"  locating  the  leaks,  and  do  it  through 
the  secretary's  office. 

A  very  brief  analysis  of  the  apphcation  of  records 
to  the  diagram  on  page  66  will  demonstrate  the  scope 
of  the  work  of  the  secretary.  In  the  first  two  groups, 
"Home"  and  "Environments,"  the  records  should 
show  all  of  this  data  with  reference  to  each  scholar. 
The  new  teacher,  in  particular,  can  get  an  intelligent 
grasp  of  the  problem.  Complete  records  are  invalu- 
able in  the  assignment  of  the  new  scholar,  and  this 
assignment  is  frequently  a  very  potent  reason  in  the 
study  of  withdrawals.  Such  records  make  possible  the 
concentration  of  the  organized  adult  classes  on  nonac- 
tive  parents.  Records  in  the  form  of  interesting  data, 
letters,  and  individual  reports  help  link  the  school  to 
the  home. 

In  the  third  group,  "Teenism,"  the  records  are  par- 
ticularly valuable  in  showing  what  teachers  are  falling 
down  on  this  problem,  and  can  show  one  teacher  what 
others  are  accomplishing.  Comparative  records  of 
other  schools  are  especially  valuable  here. 

In  section  (a)  of  group  4,  records  are  exceedingly 

67 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

valuable  in  urging  on  the  careless  teacher,  in  locating 
inefficiency,  in  really  training  the  teacher  in  this  phase 
of  the  work.  Properly  compiled  and  properly  pre- 
sented, they  show  the  value  and  importance  of  Sunday 
school  work  in  ways  which  help  attract  ability  to  the 
teaching  force  and  reveal  to  the  general  church  mem- 
bership the  possibilities  of  the  Sunday  school  under 
proper  conditions. 

In  sections  h,  c,  and  d,  of  group  4,  inefficiency  or 
mismanagement  seldom  thrives  under  the  spotlight 
.  which  the  records  throw  on  every  phase  of 

Records  to  the  school.  Our  Sunday  school  short- 
Withdrawal  comings  are  largely  unintentional. 
The  deliberate  element  is  so  small  as  to 
be  negligible.  In  an  important  sense,  records  will 
check  or  stop  continued  and  repeated  absences,  and 
these  are  usually  the  first  symptoms  of  withdrawal. 
Records  can  and  should,  unerringly,  but  without  prej- 
udice, place  the  responsibility,  for  errors  are  weak- 
nesses. Recorded  data,  actual  facts,  will  open  up  the 
church  pocketbook  as  no  amount  of  individual  theories 
or  hobbies  can  do.  An  appeal  to  the  Sunday  school 
governing  body  for  changes  or  to  the  church  for 
improved  equipment  and  conditions,  will  seldom  fail, 
if  it  is  properly  backed  by  dependable  recorded  evi- 
dence. 

In  group  5,  records  should  show  the  reason  for  each 
withdrawal.  In  the  first  two  cases,  where  the  former 
member  remains  in  the  same  community,  some  school 
connection  should  be  maintained,  either  in  the  Home 
Department  or  as  a  regularly  followed  up  "associate" 
member.  The  records  should  show  periodically 
whether  the  reason  for  withdrawal  still  exists,  and 
when  it  ceases,  every  effort  sliould  be  made  to  bring  tlie 

68 


WITHDRAWALS— THE  PROBLEM 

individual  back  into  active  connection  witli  the  school. 
In  case  of  change  of  address  the  withdrawal  card 
should  give  the  new  address,  if  possible,  and  an  inter- 
ested teacher  can  secure  this  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases.  A  card  mailed  by  the  record  keeper  to  the 
pastor  or  Sunday  school  superintendent  in  the  new 
location  will  usually  result  satisfactorily.  Where  the 
school  has  an  active  propaganda  policy  and  finds  a 
former  Sunday  school  member  who  says,  frankly,  "I 
don't  like  Sunday  school  work  because  of  'such  and 
such  a  reason'  in  the  old  school,"  a  frank  report  sent 
to  the  school  which  made  the  unfavorable  impression 
will  constitute  a  most  valuable  record  entry  in  that 
school,  and  this  in  itself  reveals  the  extreme  to  which 
record-keeping  may  be  carried.  In  any  event  the 
secretary's  office  should  be  the  clearing  house  for  the 
active  propaganda  of  the  school  and  of  each  class. 

Because  of  the  fact  that  the  secretary  faces,  in  the 
withdrawal  problem,  the  hardest  task  which  there  is 
in  the  whole  scope  of  the  work,  there  should  be  ade- 
quate preparation  for  the  educational  campaign  which 
must,  of  necessity,  be  carried  on  in  the  school  before 
this  withdrawal  data  can  be  secured. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  lines  of  appeal  will  come 
through  emphasizing  the  fact  that  the  most  careful 
siu'veys,  as  shown  on  the  forms  on  page  129,  reveal 
the  average  age  of  conversion  to  be  approximately 
sixteen  years.  When  this  fact  is  coupled  with  the 
amazing  statistics  showing  withdrawals  before  that 
age,  the  average  teacher  can  hardly  escape  the  respon- 
sibility of  cooperating  most  heartily  in  any  method 
which  will  seek  a  solution  of  the  problem  in  the  local 
school. 

Any  Sunday  school  teacher  knows  the  attractive- 

69 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

ness  of  the  story  of  the  "Nmety  and  Nine"  when 
taught  to  a  class  of  children,  and  when  the  matter  is 
fairly  presented  will  recognize  the  incongruousness  of 
telling  the  story  of  the  Master's  thoroughness,  and 
then  turning  to  the  class  records  and  erasing  a  name 
or  tearing  a  card  up  in  order  to  get  rid  of  some  scholar 
whose  irregular  attendance  record  is  perhaps  keeping 
the  class  from  some  coveted  honor. 

The  secretary  who  gets  simply  a  glimpse  of  the  pos- 
sibilities which  can  result  from  this  phase  of  the  work 
will  always  be  ready  to  begin,  and  some  of  the  most 
approved  methods  will  be  considered  in  the  next 
chapter. 


70 


CHAPTER  VII 
WITHDRAWALS— THE  SOLUTION 

As  previously  indicated,  the  solution  of  the  with- 
drawal problem  begins  at  the  time  of  enrollment,  with 
the  collection  of  the  information  which  will  have  so 
decided  an  effect,  if  it  is  properly  used,  during  the 
advancement  of  the  new  member  through  the  school. 
The  follow-up  of  the  new  scholar,  all  of  the  plans  for 
stimulating  regularity  of  attendance,  all  of  the  work 
which  tests  the  ability  of  the  individual  teacher,  unite 
in  reducing  the  number  of  withdrawals,  and  the  with- 
drawal record  is  really  the  ultimate  test  of  the  thor- 
oughness of  all  of  this  preliminary  work — preliminary 
because  one  of  the  great  and  important  duties  of  the 
secretary  is  to  help  hold  the  scholar  so  that  all  of  the 
school  influences  and  all  the  efforts  of  the  faithful 
teacher  may  have  the  proper  time  to  do  their  work, 
and  that  the  child  may  be  led  through  the  successive 
steps  of  "Bible  instruction,  a  personal  acceptance  of 
Christ,  the  realization  of  the  great  ideals  of  Christian 
character  and  conduct,  and  the  transforming  of  these 
ideals  into  unselfish  service  for  others."  The  work 
is  not  for  the  sake  of  records,  but  for  the  lives  they 
may  hold  for  the  Master. 

Xo  matter,  however,  how  well  this  work  may  have 
been  2:)lanned  and  carried  out,  there  will  be  with- 
drawals. The  first  step  in  securing  with- 
to°^tart  drawal  data  is  securing  the  cooperation  of 

the  teachers.  The  secretary  has  no 
authority  to  compel  the  investigation  of  each  with- 

71 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

drawal  and  the  reporting  of  the  reason  and,  if  the 
power  were  given,  would  be  fooHsh  to  try  to  exercise 
it  as  a  force.  Get  the  teachers  together,  put  the  prob- 
lem fairly  up  to  them.  Most  of  them  have  probably 
never  considered  the  relative  importance  of  the  study. 
They  have  everywhere  heard  enrollment  and  attend- 
ance— numbers,  numbers,  numbers,  but  seldom  have 
they  been  asked  the  "Why?"  Let  them  see  the  rea- 
sonableness of  the  request.  Be  ready  to  tactfully  meet 
the  objections  and  ask  for  a  year's  trial  of  the  plan. 
A  year  is  plenty  of  time  for  making  a  showing,  and 
the  school  which  tries  out,  honestly  and  fairly,  a  com- 
prehensive investigation  of  withdrawals,  seldom  goes 
back. 

With  this  consent,  get  a  ruling  from  the  governing 
school  body  that  no  teacher  shall  withdraw  a  scholar 
^  without  signing  a  report  giving  the  rea- 

Teachers'  SOU.  This  for  two  reasons,  both  learned 
UorT^^^^"  ^^  experience.  There  wilt  be  teachers 
and  there  will  be  some  adult  classes  which 
will  object,  and  it  will  take  all  of  the  patience  and  all 
of  the  tact  of  the  secretary  and  all  of  the  authority  of 
the  school  to  bring  them  into  harmony  with  the  plan. 
Again,  if  the  teacher  is  permitted  to  make  a  verbal 
request  or  send  some  member  of  the  class  to  make  a 
report,  and  these  simpl}^  accumulate  during  the  year, 
by  the  time  the  secretary  is  ready  to  make  a  report  of 
the  summary  many  a  teacher  will  forget  that  John 
Jones  and  Frank  Smith  were  in  their  classes  for  a 
few  Sundays  the  first  of  the  year;  objections  are 
raised,  the  accuracy  of  the  report  is  questioned,  and 
the  results  are  negative.  The  signed  reports  obviate 
these  difficulties. 

When  this  course  is  once  decided  upon,  the  proper 

72 


WITHDRAWALS— THE  SOLUTION 


ABSENCE  CARD 


Dale  ol  Absence. 
Reason 


Scholars  Signature. 
Parenis  8ignaiurc_ 
Teachers  Signalwc- 
Class  No 


An  absence  card  which  is  the  first  step  in  the  investigation  of  an 
apparently  unexplained  withdrawal.  The  inference  is  that  it  is  only 
a  case  of  absence  and  the  scholar  or  parent  is  not  approached  from  the 
withdrawal  standpoint. 


WITHDRAWAL 

CARD                                 1 

To  be  billed  our  complrtely  by  the  Te»cher  and  f.led 

with  the  Secretary 

Namr  "^  S^U^l-r                                                                                                                                                                1 

n... 

Gone  to  another  Sunday  School  Q     What  School  7. 

_ 

Personal    F]                                        Home           F 
Sickness-^                         \=\                      Wo'^ln      •              h 
hamily                                                      liuainesa    1 

Indifference 
Parents-^                               M 
Influence                | 

T-o^l,,, 

See  other  .ide  (or  record  of  foUow  op.                1 

A  comprehensive  withdrawal  card.  In  many  schools  the  rule  has 
been  made  that  no  name  can  be  withdrawn  from  the  rolls  until  this 
card  is  properly  filled  out  and  signed  by  the  teacher.  It  classifies  the 
reasons  and  shows  whether  the  withdrawal  is  for  a  good  reason. 


73 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

blanks  should  be  secured.  Forms  similar  to  those 
illustrated  are  generally  used. 

With  this  equipment  in  working  shape,  a  new  prob- 
lem will  undoubtedly  reveal  itself:  some  teachers  will 
prefer  to  simply  leave  the  cards  in  the  envelope  or  the 
name  on  the  class  roll,  even  though  the  member  is  no 
longer  attending,  and  there  may  be  an  occasional  class 
secretary,  failing  to  realize  the  importance  of  the 
effort,  who  will  simply  tear  up  the  card  or  erase  the 
name  without  making  any  report. 

The  latter  calls  for  some  method  of  a  double  check 
which  will  be  discussed  later;  the  former  for  the  pro- 
viding of  the  proper  incentive  for  keeping  the  class 
lists  cleared  up.  This  may  be  done  by  simply  check- 
ing the  attendance  records,  following  up  the  absentee 
reports,  and  going  after  the  withdrawal  record  person- 
ally. In  other  schools  the  secretary  grades  each  class 
on  its  per  cent  of  attendance  and  thus  furnishes  the 
incentive  for  seeing  that  the  enrollment  is  properly 
and  promptly  reduced  when  a  member  leaves.  Ulti- 
mately the  teachers  find  that  it  is  far  easier  to  secure 
the  required  information  early  than  late,  more  and 
more  the  close  personal  touch  between  teacher  and 
individual  scholar  is  developed,  and  the  filling  out  of 
tlie  withdrawal  blanks  becomes  automatic. 

When  the  reports  begin  coming  in,  they  should  be 
first  sorted  into  two  divisions,  namely,  those  which 
carry  a  good  reason  and  those  for  which  some  one  or 
something — teacher,  parent,  school,  community  influ- 
ence, etc. — is  to  blame.  Those  for  good  reasons  are 
closed  when  recorded,  unless  there  be  the  obligation 
of  notifying  a  pastor  or  a  superintendent  in  some  other 
place  that  one  of  your  members  has  been  transferred 
and  should  have  his  attention. 

74 


WITHDRAWALS— THE  SOLUTION 


1              7h'«  »"'ll  intrniliifr  fn  tinii 

^H^ 

ttilfo  has  htcn  a  limal 
mtmhtr  df 

oftht 

■m 

flHEHH 

first  Meihodist  [piscopal  Church 

Topeka,  Kansas 

anb  19  li»artil^  commendcJi 
to  gour  fcllo»Dsl|ip 

position  t)clb  in  pur  srl^oal 

#>ccrttary. 

This  card  is  really  a  Sunday  school  letter.  It  introduces  the  scholar 
to  the  new  school,  its  possession  is  frequently  an  incentive  to  attend 
another  school  and  it  tells  the  superintendent  what  position  was  held 
in  the  former  school. 


A  series  of  record  books  for  those  departments  where  the  keeping 
of  records  is  especially  difficult  because  of  the  age  of  the.  children. 
Proper  records,  properly  kept  up,  are  an  indispensable  element  in  the 
prevention  of  withdrawals. 

75 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

The  blanks  which  show  poor  reasons  call  for  the 
most  intensive  study.  The  records  should  show 
whether  these  are  accumulating  from  a 
Reports^^  certain  class  or  classes.  The  reasons 
should  be  studied.  The  enrollment  cards 
should  be  studied  in  the  hght  of  the  withdrawal;  in- 
formation as  to  whether  the  member  who  had  left  was  a 
member  of  the  church  at  the  time  of  enrollment, 
whether  the  card  shows  church  accession  during  the 
connection  with  the  school;  whether  the  child  came 
from  a  Christian  home ;  what  element  and  what  age  are 
causing  the  greater  number  of  withdrawals — these  and 
other  similar  details  open  up  a  line  of  investigation 
which  is  fascinating  as  a  research  study. 

Incidentally,  a  withdrawal  for  a  poor  reason  should 
not  be  dropped  with  the  teacher's  report.  Some- 
where in  every  school,  be  it  large  or  small  numer- 
ically, there  should  be  an  organization,  a  committee, 
an  individual,  who  will  see  the  teacher,  make  a  per- 
sonal investigation,  and  make  sure  that  every  agency 
of  the  school  has  been  put  to  work  and  failed,  before 
the  entry  is  made  that  the  school  has  lost  a  member  for 
a  poor  reason.  If  the  scholar  is  a  nonchurch  member 
and  comes  from  a  non-Christian  home,  work  the 
harder  on  the  case. 

The  next  step,  which  really  should  not  be  a  problem 
at  all,  but  which  is,  very  frequently,  a  serious  one,  is 
to  get  the  superintendent  or  the  governing  body  of  the 
school  to  seriously  study  and  consider  the  reasons 
given  for  the  withdrawals,  particularly  those  for  poor 
reasons,  and  take  whatever  steps  are  necessary  to  pre- 
vent similar  cases  the  next  year.  While  the  secretary 
is  not  an  executive  officer,  there  is  a  duty  connected 
with  that  office  which  will  make  him  hold  on  tena- 

76 


WITHDRAWALS— THE  SOLUTION 


Fir^t  Methodic  Sui 

PETOSKEY,  MIC 

1 

iday  School 

H. 

iiit^ninet  in  uoocl  xtaiiuinu  cc    /'Ae 
pat^  ihunJau    'hc^ooC  c£  ^7 etc. 
ccnuneiiJccl  to    the 

yt  .^MetA'cJi^t  ^yhcc- 
aiia   L\   ailccticnatetu 

'hiinJati    ihc^ocf  cf 

yOiincitntmic/ciifi. 

Another  form  of  Sunday  school  letter. 

77 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

ciously  until  he  gets  some  action  which  will  put  a  stop 
to  the  withdrawals  for  some  of  the  specific  reasons 
which  will  be  revealed  the  first  year. 

In  the  majority  of  schools,  however,  the  officers  will 
welcome  such  information  as  furnishing  a  reliable 
basis  for  their  planning.  In  more  than  one  school  the 
superintendent  has  resigned  his  position  in  order  to 
take  up  the  work  of  the  secretary  simply  because  he 
has  found  it  impossible  to  get  the  former  secretary  to 
fin-nish  the  data,  the  need  of  which  every  wide-awake 
superintendent  realizes. 

Conditions  will  differ  in  different  localities  and  in 
different  schools,  but  any  secretary  who  once  realizes 
all  that  it  means  to  know  accurately  the  reason  for 
every  withdrawal  will  work  on  the  problem  until  the 
key  to  the  local  situation  is  found. 

As  an  example  of  the  importance  of  the  record  of 
withdrawals,  the  following  reports  are  taken  from  the 
records  of  a  county  secretary,  both  schools 
Examples  being  in  the  same  town.  One  report 
showed  a  membership  of  ^ve  hundred  and 
thirty-seven,  which  was  an  increase  over  the  previous 
year  of  fifty-two.  The  other  showed  about  the  same 
enrollment,  but  a  decrease  of  ^ve,  in  comparison  with 
the  previous  year.  This  was  all  the  data  called  for, 
and  it  is  not  hard  to  know  which  report  was  received 
with  the  more  favor.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  when  the 
investigation  was  carried  direct  to  the  school,  it  de- 
veloped that  the  first  school  had  used  various  plans  to 
get  in  new  members,  but  its  emphasis  was  laid  on  num- 
bers instead  of  efficiency,  and  its  campaign  was  still 
on.  It  had  had  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  with- 
drawals during  the  year.  In  the  great  majority  of 
cases  the  teachers,  when  questioned,  said  that  they  did 

78 


WITHDKAWALS— THE  SOLUTION 

not  know  why  the  scholars  had  left,  but  guessed  that 
most  of  them  were  merely  visitors  and  should  never 
have  been  enrolled.  When  asked  how  many  of  those 
who  were  reported  as  actual  members  would  be  with- 
drawn a  little  later  for  this  same  reason,  even  guesses 
were  not  ventured. 

In  the  case  of  the  second  school,  with  practically  the 
same  enrollment,  there  had  been  only  eighty-two  with- 
drawals. That  school  knew  why  ever}^  member  had 
left  and  there  was  not,  during  the  whole  year,  a  single 
withdrawal  for  a  poor  reason.  Which  school  was 
really  tlie  more  prosperous  ? 

Tlie  average  scliool  is  content  if  its  em-ollment  and 
attendance  are  equal  to  the  preceding  year,  and  re- 
joices if  an  increase  is  shown.  Sucli  a  school  needs  to 
be  reminded  tliat  the  death  rate  does  not  equal  tlie 
birtli  rate  in  a  healthy  school.  In  this  connection,  a 
business  incident  will  help  to  illustrate  the  intensive 
study  which  should  be  given  this  subject.  In  a  factory, 
one  of  the  processes  of  which  was  the  enameling  of  its 
product,  an  expensive  enamel  was  used,  the  receptacle 
for  which  was  a  large  tank  holding  hundreds  of  gal- 
lons. The  foreman  of  the  department  found,  from  his 
records,  that  an  increasing  amount  of  enamel  was 
required  to  handle  a  normal  output.  He  had  his  bar- 
rels of  enamel  and  could  easily  keep  the  level  in  the  big 
tanks  up  to  the  required  standard  by  simply  adding 
the  required  amount.  While  this  is  the  ordinary 
method  in  Sunday  school  work,  it  does  not  apply  to 
the  business  world.  In  that  case,  at  a  considerable 
expenditure  of  time  and  effort,  the  tank  was  emptied, 
raised  from  the  ground,  cleaned,  and  gone  over  almost 
microscopically;  but  the  leak,  the  evidence  of  which 
was  revealed  by  the  records,  was  located  through  the 

79 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

efforts  of  the  man  who  studied  those  records.  The 
Sunday  school  appHcation  needs  no  special  attention 
drawn  to  it. 

In  studying  withdrawal  records  the  secretary  will 
do  well  to  remember  that  a  Sunday  school  can  grow 
rusty,  and  that  rust  means  leaks. 


80 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PERSONAL  LETTER 

Volumes  have  been  written  for  the  business  world 
deahng  with  this  subject,  but  only  a  comparatively 
few  Sunday  schools  have  realized  its  true  value.  In 
this  connection,  again,  the  business  viewjioint  is  heli)- 
ful.  The  man  of  affairs  would  grant  that,  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances,  a  personal  visit  or  interview  would 
be  preferable,  althougli  tliere  are  times  and  cases 
where  trutlis  are  better  written  than  spoken.  The 
Sunday  school  leader  woidd  always  prefer  a  teaching 
force  which  coidd  establish  tliat  intimate  and  personal 
touch  with  each  new  member  and  with  the  family  of 
that  member  and  which  would  maintain  that  relation- 
ship. Such  an  aim  is  not  too  high  and  is  not  unattain- 
able, but  in  the  average  school  it  is  as  yet  only  a  desire 
and  not  a  realization.  Even  in  schools  where  this 
ideal  has  been  reached,  and  most  certainly  in  the  aver- 
age school,  there  is  much  which  the  active  secretary  can 
do  to  supplement  the  work  of  teacher  or  officer,  and 
the  use  of  the  personal  letter  is  one  of  the  most  effec- 
tive ways. 

With  the  New  Scholar.  There  is  always  much 
comment  on  the  relationship  between  the  home  and  the 

school ;  on  the  apparent  failure  of  the  par- 
Scholar^  ^^^ts    ^^    properly    cooperate    with    the 

teaclier  and  the  school;  on  tlie  modern 
tendency  to  leave  the  religious  education  of  the  child 
entirely  to  the  Sunday  scliool  teacher.     There  is  an- 

81 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

other  side,  and  one  which  is  just  as  real — the  failure 
of  the  teacher  and  the  school  to  properly  cooperate 
with  the  home  and  the  parents.  These  are  both  very 
vital  problems,  and  the  secretary  can  only  aid  in  their 
solution. 

Considerable  research  has  shown  that  but  few 
schools  make  an  intelligent  effort  to  direct  this  co- 
operation, or  even  to  arouse  it.  The  school  usually 
waits  for  a  voluntary  offer  from  the  parents,  and  while 
it  is  difficult  for  the  enthusiastic  Sunday  school  worker 
to  understand  why  the  parents  do  not  actively  seek 
ways  to  assist  the  teacher  to  whom  they  will  owe  so 
much,  the  facts  and  not  the  theories  must  be  consid- 
ered. It  is  certainly  within  the  province  of  the  secre- 
tary, through  whose  hands  passes  in  some  way  the 
information  regarding  the  new  scholar,  to  write  to  the 
father  and  mother,  extend  greetings  from  the  school, 
express  appreciation  at  their  confidence  in  the  school 
as  demonstrated  by  their  placing  their  child  in  its 
charge,  tell  them  what  the  school  is  trying  to  do,  a  little 
about  the  work  which  that  particular  child  will  take 
up,  who  the  teacher  will  be,  and  just  how  they  can  help 
the  school  to  help  their  child.  This  will  aid  the  teacher 
in  similar  work,  and  if,  as  is  frequently  the  case,  it  is 
the  only  expression  which  comes  from  the  school,  it 
will  be  a  big  factor  in  establishing  the  desired  relation- 
ship. 

As  AN  Aid  in  Decision  Day.  More  and  more  is 
the  value  of  personal  work,  in  leading  the  child  to  this 
personal  acceptance  of  Christ,  being  real- 
Day  Aid  i^^^  ^^^^  emphasized,  but  there  is  nearlj^ 
always  a  place  for  supplemental  help. 
The  school  gains  in  dignity,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
parents,  when  the  school's  concern,  as  well  as  the 

82 


TO S  MOTHER 

My  dear  Iriend: 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  welcome  your  diild  to  Sunday  flckool.  I  teel 
tkat  tKe  children  belong  to  me  as  well  as  to  their  mothers.  They 
are  with  me  hut  one  hour  during  the  w^eelc,  and  you  can  see  how 
much  I  need  your  help  li  that  hour  is  to  mean  anything  to  them. 

Each  Sunday  I  tell  the  children  a  story.  Often  they  say. 
"Tell  it  again."  but  I  do  not  have  time.  So  I  give  them  the  story  to 
take  home,  that  their  mothers  may  tell  it  to  them  as  many  times  as 
they  wish. 

I  tell  them  these  storied  not  only  to  interest  them,  but  to  teach 
them  about  the  heavenly  Father's  care,  or  to  help  them  to  be  kind  to 
animals,  or  to  make  them  obedient  children,  or  to  fill  them  with  love 
for  Jesus,  the  children's  Friend.  I  wish  the  stories  to  be  part  of 
their  everyday  life,  but  they  cannot  be  unless  the  mothers  help  to 
make  them  so.  You  will  find  beneath  the  story  a  line  or  two  called 
"The  Mother's  Part,"  which  will  suggest  ways  of  doing  this. 

The  stories  are  nearly  all  from  the  Bible.  Now  and  then  there 
is  a  nature  story.  I  think  you  will  enjoy  looking  up  the  Bible  nature 
verses  on  w^hich  they  are  based,  and  enjoy,  too,  these  stories  that  help 
your  child  to  see  that  everything  in  the  great  outdoors  is  a  gift  from 
a  loving  Father,  and  that  God.  who  provides  for  the  little  child, 
cares  also  for   animals   and  birds. 

Once  in  a  while  you  will  find  that  the  etory  in  the  folder 
which  your  child  brings  home  is  neither  a  Bible  story  nor  a  nature 
story.  ^^hen  this  occurs  you  w^ill  know  that  I.  have  taken  that 
particular  Sunday  for  telling  over  again  old  Bible  stories,  and  that  I 
have  not  told  the  folder  story.  I  am  leaving  the  telling  of  that  story 
to  you.  It  has  the  same  thought  as  have  the  Bible  storiea  ior  that 
day  and  illustrates  their  teaching   in  modern  child   life. 

Perhaps  you  will  wonder  how  the  stories  are  chosen,  for  they 
are  first  from  one  part  of  the  Bible  and  then  from  anotner  part. 
They  are  arranged  to  fit  subjects.  A  child  does  not  care  w^hether 
one  story  happened  before  or  after  another,  but  is  impressed  hy  a 
group  of  stories  on  the  same  topic,  such  as  obedience  or  kindness  or 
love. 

I  hope  your  child  will  enjoy  the  Bible  verses  printed  in  colors, 
and  that  the  pleasure  derived  from  looking  at  them  w^ill  lead  to  a 
w^ish  to  say  them.  \Ve  do  not  give  more  verses  than  oan  be 
learned  easily.  They  are  all  very  short.  I  like  to  think  that  the 
Sunday  school  songs  w^ill  be  sung  at  home. 

Do  come  to  visit  us.  The  children  and  I  should  love  to  have 
you.  You  will  see  then  what  we  are  trying  to  accomplish,  and  bow 
very  much  w^e  need  your  help. 

Sincerely  yours. 


A  printed  letter  which  is  sent  to  the  mother  when  the  child  unites 
with  the  Sunday  school.  It  is  verj'  effective  in  linking  the  parents' 
interest  to  the  school. 

83 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


flRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


[vi^wi::i] 


TOPCM.  XAH*a#. 


Dear  Friends: 

It  la  with  ouoh  pleasure  that  wa  nave  enrolled 
your  child  in  our  Sunday  School.   You  may  be  eure  that'  the 
officers  and  teachers  reoognlze  the  great  responsibility  whloh 
rests  upon  them  as  their  part  In  the  developement  of  ohlld  life 
and  character. 

All  of  the  work  of  the  most  faithful  teacher  and  ef- 
ficient school  will  prove  Ineffective,  unless  there  Is  the  oloaeet 
oooperatlon  between  school  and  parente.   Unless  you  have  been  In 
closest  touch  with  modern  Sunday  School  work,  you  can  hardly 
realize  the  wonderful  advance  which  has  been  made  In  plans  and 
methcds. 

The  child  receives  Bible  training  and  we  try  to  throw 
arouni  It  every  Influence  to  lead  quletlv  and  naturally  to  a  per- 
sonal acoeptanoe  of  all  of  the  prlnolplee  for  which  the  Church 
stands.   Church  membership,  however, is  not  our  sole  aim.  Our  real 
purpose  Is  svumred  up   in  the  phrase  which  appears  in  our-  heading, 
and  in  the  realization  of  this,  we  ask  and  expeot  your  help. 

This  will  necessitate  a  kaowledge  of  the  work  in  the 
particular  department  to  which  the  child  is  aesigned.  Will  you  net 
get  In  touch  with  the  teacher,  whose  name  and  address  is  given 
below, and  find  out  about  the  work  and  how  you  can  be  of  servioe^ 

Perhaps  you  do  not  reallzfe  that  there  is  a  plaoe  for 
every  member  of  the  family  in  our  school,  one  which  is  enjoyable 
as  well  as  helpful.   Your  influence  will  be  much  greater  if  you, 
yourselves,  are  connected  with  the  sobool  in  some  way.  You  are 
cordially  Invited  to  attend  any  of  our  sessiona. 

Reeularlty  in  attendance  is  an  absolute  requialta 
for  the  best  work.    Will  you  not  exert  all  of  your  Influence 
along  this  line?  Every  Sunday  morning  -  9:30  sharp  -  please. 

By  sending  your  child  to  our  Sunday  School  you  have 
aeVed  us  to  help  you  in  the  religious  training.  We  appreciate  the 
opportunity.   Will  you  not  respond, with  equal  readiness,  to  the 
requests  which  tr.ay  be  made  for  ycur  support  and  assietanoa* 


Yo\ire  very  truly. 


Teacher's  Same 


Sao. 


Adress 


A  typical  letter  sent  out  by  the  Sunday  school  to  the  parents  of  all 
new  members.  In  this  particular  case  there  are  always  inclosures  of 
little  folders  or  pamphlets. 


84 


THE  PERSONAL  LETTER 


First  Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday  school 


Seat  to  new  seabar  of  the  ohurdb. 


W*  are  always  glad  to  weloome  newooDere  Into 
our  ohuroh  but  are  doubly  pleaeed  when  we  can  also  enroll 
them  into  our  Sunday  Sohool.    We  note  the  addition  of  your 
oaaa  on  our  phurch  roll  -  may  we  remind  you  of  the  oppor  - 
tunltiea  whlob  the  Sunday  Sohool  offers  you,  not  only  for 
pleasure  but  for  real  serrioe. 

ETery  Sunday  morning  you  will  find  from  700  to 
eOO  men,  women  emd  children  gathered  together,  engaged  in 
every  phase  of  modem  Sunday  Sohool  work.   There  are  child- 
ren of  4  years  and  there  are  adults  of  more   than  80.  There 
is  a  plaoe  for  everybody,  congenial  classes  for  each  one, 
phases  of  work  which  are  so  diversified  as  to  appeal  to  all 
age*. 

If  you  have  been  engaged  in  Sunday  School  work, 
please  don't  let  it  drop.    If  you  have  never  given  it  serious 
consideration  you  are  honestly  not  fair  to  yourself  to  pass 
it  without  investigation. 

We  extend  to  you  a  most  cordial  invitation  to  come 
out  next  Sunday  morning  at  9:30  and  find  out  what  a  really 
modern  Sunday  School  is.    Miss  Wellcome,  our  enrollment  sec- 
retary, is  really  an  expert  in  placing  new  members  in  the  most 
congenial  and  helpful  classes  and  she  will  be  glad  to  go  Into 
details  with  you. 

Tou  will  find  a  hearty  welcome  and  you  will  never 
be  *  etranger  after  that  first  Sunday. 

Cordially  your»» 


^  One  way  of  approach  to  the  new  church  member  which  is  very  effec- 
tive and  results  in  many  new  enrollments  in  the  Sunday  school. 


85 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

teacher's  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  scholar,  is  ex- 
pressed, and  a  word  from  the  school,  through  its  secre- 
tary, is  especially  appropriate  at  those  periods  when  a 
special  effort  is  being  made  to  direct  the  child  in  the 
great  matter  of  church  relationship.  These  letters 
may  go  to  the  child,  to  the  parents,  or,  what  is  still 
better,  to  both. 

Upon  Uniting  with  the  Church.     When  the 
child  unites  with  the  church,  the  school  has  its  greatest 

opportunity  to  reach  and  touch  the  par- 
with^Church    ^^^ts.    The  secretary,  with  the  knowledge 

of  the  record  constantly  before  him,  will 
not  neglect  this  opportunity  for  a  word  with  both 
child  and  parents.  A  brief,  simple  expression  of  per- 
sonal pleasure  in  recording  this  act  of  the  child,  as  a 
part  of  the  school  history,  opens  the  way  to  the  heart 
of  many  a  child  and  serves  not  only  to  elevate  the 
school  in  the  child's  esteem  but  emphasizes  the  connec- 
tion with  the  school  and  not  merely  with  an  individual 
class.  A  letter  to  the  parents  has  the  same  effect.  In 
this  connection  is  recognized  the  value,  the  absolute 
necessity,  of  knowing  whether  the  parents  are  church 
people  or  not,  information  which  is  properly  secured 
at  the  time  of  the  enrollment  of  the  scholar.  There  is 
naturally  a  difference  between  the  letters  written  to 
parents  who  are  active  church  workers  and  to  those 
who  have  little  or  no  interest  in  it  other  than  that 
which  may  be  aroused  by  the  child. 

With  New  Members  of  the  Church^  who  are 
not  connected  with  the  Sunday  school.     Again,  it  is 

granted  that  a  personal  invitation  coming 
M^mber?^       from  the  class  or  department  to  which 

these  new  members  would  naturally  be 
assigned  in  the  Sunday  school  is  the  most  desirable 

86 


THE  PERSOXAL  LETTER 


First  Methodist  episcopal  Sunday  school 


OUR  AIH-  Thi  Dcvfie^ntNT  or  tui  H 
.     TtPt  Of  CNNIfTUH    Ch*»ACTCR  ' 


OT?!.*?.?;! 


3«Dt  to  parents  wh«n  a  ohlld 
unites  with  the  ohurob. 


Dear  Frlende  • 

One  of  the  waye  by  whloli  you  alwaye  Judge  the 
efficiency  of  the  Sunday  School  to  which  you  eend  your 
children,  la  whether  or  not  it  is  able  to  lead  the  chil- 
dren to  a  perfectly  natural  acceptance  of  the  principle* 
for  which  the  church  stands.  We  are  glad  with  you,  that 
a  ?iemVer  of  your  family  hae  taken  this  step. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  long  taken  the  posi- 
tion that  the  children  were  really  a  part  of  the  church  - 
has  believed  in  keeping  them  under  its  influence  -  as  Dr. 
MoFarland  put  Jt   "The  Preservation  va  the  Rescue  of  the 
Child. •  '  As  you  know,  in  the  case  of  your  own  child,  there 
was  no  emotional  appeal  or  Influence  but  our  teachers  have 
•tried  to  lead  their  scholars  quietly,  simply,  naturally  to 
a  personal  expression  and  decision. 

As  a  Sunday  School  we  do  not  think,  however, 
that  our  ^rork  is  done  when  the  chllds  name  is  written  ou 
the,.church  roll.   A  reopansibllity,  greater  than  ever,restt 
upon  us  as  upon  you,  and  in  the  meeting  of  this  we  again 
ask  your  cooperation.   As  your  child  grows  and  developee 
Intellectually, the  understanding  of  the  real  meaning  of 
church  membership  will  grow  and  develope.   Will  you  not 
work  with  us  to  the  end  that  the  rlrht  aspect  of  the  church 
obligation  may  always  be  presented, 'for  each  phase  of  child 
grewthf 

The  officers  and  teachers  want  your  suggestions 
and  advice.  Mil  you  not  come  to  us  frankly, -at  all  tlmosT 
The  leadln=^  of  =i  cMld,  after  the  first  step  is  taken,   is 
a  labor  of  love  and  Is  worthy  the  best  efforts  of  us  all. 
Will  you  not  feel  that  we  are  in  heartiest  accord  with  you 
and  ready  to  do  anything  we  can,  to  be  of  service  to  you  and 
your  children. 

Tours  very  elncerely. 


Touching  the  parent  at  the  most  approachable  time.  If  every  school 
could  see  the  results  such  letters  have  secured,  their  use  would  rapidly 
increase. 


87 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


N«.  no.    DieH  |t««or<l  BUnk 

RECORD  BLANK 


SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


I    Name  of  Scholar. 


2    Residence  :  No Street. 


3  Date  of  Birth :  Day Month, 

4  In  What  Grade  at  Day  School 

5  Brought  In  By  , 


6  Assigned  to  Class 

7  Teacher  


8  Date  of  Entering  this  Sunday  School. 

9  Church  With  Which  Parents  Affiliate. 

10  Parent's  Name 


Dear  Parents  :  We  are  very  glad  to  welcome  your  child  to  our  de- 
partment. It  is  our  aim  to  make  all  the  exercises  interesting  and  profit- 
able, so  that  the  religious  life  of  all  our  members  may  be  qviickened  and 
cultivated.  We  cannot  do  this  without  your  assistance.  I  take  the  liberty 
of  suggesting  some  of  the  ways  in  which  you  can  aid  us. 

1.  See  that  your  child  attends  regularly  and  punctually, 

2.  Question  each  Sabbath  afternoon  on  the  lesson  taught,  thus  im- 
pressing the  truth  more  firmly  on  the  child  mind. 

3.  Visit  our  department  as  often  as  possible. 

4.  If  special  work  is  assigned,  such  as  songs  and  recitations,  kindly 
see  that  they  are  thoroughly  learned. 

5.  Our  work  and  yours  are  identical — the  development  of  Christiaft. 
character.  We  are  not  seeking  to  take  the  place  of  the  home,  but  only  toj 
supplement  it ;  we  desire,  therefore,  your  prayers,  that  with  you  we  may 
be  able  to  faithfully  carry  out  Christ's  command,  "Feed  my  lambs." 

As  our  Sunday  School  is  graded,  we  need  the  above  information  so  as 
to  place  your  child  in  the  proper  prade,  kindly  write  in  the  answers  to  the 
first  tour  questions,  detach  card  and  return  to  me  next  Sabbath. 
Your  friend. 


Superintendent 


Another   piiuted   form    which   is   exceedingly   useful   for   the   school 
"wmch  does  not  have  its  own  stationery, 


THE  PERSONAL  LETTER 


u     u     u     u     u 


1  to  7 


•o  14 


15  to  21 


22  to  28 


29  to  31 


Put  prominent  cheek  (eolorea  pencil  preier.ble)  in  .pace  including  proper  date.      FUe  ctA,  by  n 
Slant  car<l»  in  drawer  m  tkat  cheek,  will  .how.  permitting  eajy  Kleetion. 

•ontk 

N.mr 

A.l<l,r«« 

Department     -      -      - 

Cradle 
RoU 

Beginner. 

Primary 

Junior 

Intermediate 

Sinior 

Adult 

Home 
Department 

Check  promotions     - 

Remembrances   sent 


iinTMnAT    (NMOI-LMCHT    CARD. 


3NCCRN         New  TOR 


A  card  for  the  recordiiig  of  birthday  information,  designed  so  as  to 
be  easily  sorted  each  week. 


Date 


The  following  members  of  your  class  have  birthdays  this  week.  We  are 
sure  that  it  will  be  a  pleasure  for  you  to  remember  these  with  a  note,  a  phone 
message,  or  a  personal  word  of  greeting. 


Birthday  Secretary. 


This  little  slip  is  used  to  notify  the  teacher  of  birthdays  of  members 
of  the  class. 

89 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

method  of  approach.  On  the  other  hand,  even  if  this 
is  done,  and  most  certainly  if  it  is  not  done,  a  word  of 
greeting  from  the  secretary's  office  and  an  invitation 
to  associate  themselves  with  the  school,  as  well  as  with 
the  church,  is  of  recognized  value. 

There  are  almost  innumerable  uses  of  the  personal 
letter,  whether  it  is  penned,  typewritten,  or  duplicated. 
In  Sunday  school,  as  well  as  in  business,  it  is  always 
preferable  that  the  letter  be  a  personal  one.  The  same 
form  may  be  used,  or  the  phrases  and  expressions 
changed,  but  the  printed  or  process  letter  is  the  last 
resort  of  the  busy  secretary.  In  the  school  which  is  so 
large  that  the  secretary  cannot  give  the  matter  per- 
sonal attention  the  importance  of  the  work  would 
warrant  the  appointment  of  a  special  officer  and  where 
even  the  extra  helper  could  not  handle  all  of  the 
work,  there  are  many  who  would  volunteer  to  write  the 
letters  when  the  proper  data  were  furnished. 

The  underlying  motive  is,  as  said  before,  the  linking 
of  child  and  parents  and  home  to  the  school.     The 
secretary  thinks  of  his  school  in  terms  of 
Jff^Qti^Q  the  one  big  whole,  and  not  as  a  collection 

of  classes  or  departments;  he  wants  the 
parents  interested,  not  only  in  Frank  and  Frank's 
teacher,  and  perhaps  the  other  members  of  the  one 
class,  but  in  the  scliool,  the  great  agenc}^  of  the  individ- 
ual church  in  its  work  to  promote  the  interests  of  our 
Master.  All  the  other  means  are  good,  the  teacher, 
the  friend,  the  superintendent,  the  pastor,  but  the 
secretary  can  touch  each  individual  scholar  with  a 
little  different  authoritative  influence,  and  constantly 
keep  before  them  the  part  they  are  playing  in  the  mak- 
ing of  the  history  of  the  school  and  the  effect  they  are 
having  on  the  records  which  are  being  compiled. 

90 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 

The  Weekly  Report  to  the  School 

Some  schools  have  eliminated  this  entirely,  using 
only  an  occasional  printed  report  or  depending  upon 
the  use  of  the  bulletin  board.  In  the  larger  schools, 
which  assemble  by  departments  alone,  the  report,  if 
made  at  all,  can  be  made  only  by  the  department 
secretaries.  Where  the  school  is  together  for  only  the 
opening  exercises,  the  problem  changes,  but  is  still 
difficult,  for  week-old  figures  are  hard  to  present  in 
palatable  form.  In  the  average  school,  however,  the 
closing  exercises  are  participated  in  by  the  entire 
school,  and  here  is  where  the  secretary  is  given  oppor- 
tunity for  exceedingly  effective  work. 

This  weekly  rej^ort  is  always  indicative  of  the  spirit 
prevailing  in  the  office  of  the  secretary.  The  old 
formula  called  for  the  name  of  the  person 
the^Report  making  the  opening  prayer;  the  total  at- 
tendance, with  perhaps  the  number  pres- 
ent in  each  class  or  department ;  the  amount  of  the  col- 
lection, and  perhaps  a  comparison  with  the  preceding 
Sunday  or  the  corresponding  Sunday  of  the  preceding 
year.  Some  schools  still  use  the  plan  of  having  a 
representative  of  each  class  rise  and  give  the  report  for 
that  class.  Others  use  the  blackboard  for  compiling 
the  number  of  men  and  boys  and  women  and  girls,  etc. 
All  of  this  is  data  which  undeniably  have  their  uses,  but 

91 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

they  must  appear  in  various  forms  and  disguised  with 
tasty  garnishments  if  they  are  to  be  palatable  week 
after  week. 

Some  one  has  well  compared  the  work  of  the  secre- 
tary in  compiling  the  report  with  the  duty  of  a  news- 
paper reporter,  in  the  respect  that  he  should  be  search- 
ing for  bright,  snappy,  interesting  news  items,  reports 
of  class  or  department  happenings,  and,  failing  to  ac- 
cumulate these,  the  necessity  arises  for  the  creation  of 
an  interesting  story  out  of  his  more  are  less  prosaic 
statistics.  Given  this  ability,  there  are  three  main 
sources  of  supply  for  his  material,  data  from  his 
records,  reports  from  helpful  friends  in  the  school, 
"scissors  and  paste,"  items  gleaned  from  other 
schools,  from  Sunday  school  papers  and  periodicals, 
the  public  press,  etc. 

Perhaps  the  question  is  raised  as  to  whether  such 
features  are  properly  a  part  of  the  report  of  a  Sunday 
school  secretary.  Keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  secre- 
tary is  a  school  "booster,"  that  he  is  working  for  school 
spirit,  that  his  comparisons  between  classes  and  de- 
partments have  this  motive.  There  is  also  the  point 
that  if  the  secretary  is  to  secure  all  of  the  information 
which  is  necessary  to  make  his  records  properly  com- 
prehensive, he  must  have  the  good  will  and  cooperation 
of  the  entire  school,  and  his  weekly  report  to  the  school 
is  very  largely  the  one  medium  through  which  he  can 
arouse  that  personal  liking  which  will  be  a  big  factor 
in  the  success  of  the  work.  Again,  if  we  grant  the 
desirability  of  varying  exercises,  of  changing  pro- 
grams, of  the  stimulating  of  interest  by  a  wonder  as 
to  what  is  going  to  happen  to-day,  what  is  coming 
next,  etc.,  is  it  not  equally  logical  that  the  secretary's 
report  should  not  always  appear  as  dry  statistics,  but 

92 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


SECRETARY'S  REPORT  FOR  SUNDAY 

,9 

Depart  tncnt 

Attendance 

Cofltrlbu- 
tloos 

Laat  Year 

Remaric* 

raachers 

Boys 

Girls 

.Total 

Attend. 

Contrlb. 

Ome«r* 

Perfect  Claaaea  No*. 

Bible  Cl««*c* 

acnlor       Dep'e 

Hymn*  Sung 

Inceroaedlaic  " 

Jualor 

Coiatrlbutioa*  for 

Primary 

Bcfflancrs'      " 

lATeatbcr 

Visitor* 

Totals 

ilS,*li- Br-. ^Hr^'^o.  Bot> 

A  card  for  tho  secretary's  report,  showing  simply  the  most  commonly 
used  data. 


MONTHLY  REPORT  CARD 


Address 


Months— » 
Percent  ^ 


MARKING  BASIS 


We  can  reasoDably  expect  all  the  aemben  of  the  Main  School  to  attend 
Sunday  School  tegulatly  and  punctually,  study  lesson,  bring  Bible,  make  an  offering  and  attend 
church  once  on  Sunday.  We  therefore  have  the  following  marking  basb,  Sunday  School  At- 
tendance 50,  On  Time  10,  Lesson  Study  10.  Bible  10,  Offering  10,  Church  Attendance  10 
Total  100.  Those  standing  100  ate  Excellent;  90-100  Good;  73-90  Fair;  50-75  Poor;  un. 
tier  50  Very  Poor.     Pupils  absent  with  good  excuse  should  send  ^vritten  excuse  to  the    Super- 


A  card  which  is  sent  to  the  parents  giving  the  report  of  the  indi- 
vidual member. 


93 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


SECRETARY'S  REPORT 

TIOGA  BAPTIST  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Brsid    Below  Tiot>  Sorel 

PHILADELPHIA                                                        Date.    _ 

— 

-"-"' 

! 

I 

J 

1 

i 
i 

;i 

I 

if 

li 

- 

BEGINNERS'                    Officers 
Teachers 
Scholars 

PRIMARY                        Officers 
mp.,„„,  c.iKi                     -leachcrs 

Scholars 

jriNIOR                           Officers 
l«,.,»n,c Teachers 

Scholars 

INTERMEDIATE         Officers 

1.0  ,.,„..,  CI.....                     Teachers 

Scholars 

YOUNG  PEOPLE'S     Officers 
m  K.  cm  ci.i...                     Teachers 
Scholars 

ADULT                          Officers 
i....,<„.,.cui...                    Teaehers, 
Scholirs 

OFFICERS                    »-"'<" 

Totals 

W«aiher                       Birthday  Offerines,  $ 

Last  Year's  Record— Aiiendance, 

REMARKS: 

Home  Dept  ,  « 

Collections.  « - 

A  more  complete  form  for  the  .secretary'.^  weekly  report. 


94 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


0 

o 
o 

_ 

T 

S 

ur, 

SECRETA 

First  M.  E. 

Deca 

f'S  REPORT 

unday  School 

Illinois 

DepArtmcnt 

_o 

M  F 

T 
M   F 

M 

F 

V 

N  S 

Total 

Offering 

Adult 

Senior 

Intermediate 

Primary 

Kindergarten 

General  Officers 

Total 

PERCENTAGES 

DepkrtoMat 

T«Mhcr 

Attendance 

Offering 

1  Averace 

Adult 

Senior 

Intermediate 

Junior 

Primary 

Kindergarten 

Beginners 

Last  Sunday 

Same  Sunday  Last  Year                           

Per  Cent. 

«f  Tntftl  Attandance  in  Adult  Department                                    

Senior 

Intermediate  " 

Junior 

Primary 

Ktndergarteq  " 

'<               •'              Beginners 

No.  Late 

Remarks 

"""       """" 1 

Another    secretary's    report    which    provides    for    still    more    data    of 
various  kinds, 

95 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


^^^^^^ 

CLASS 

REGISTER 

C^SS^^^II 

mmmm 

Wc^MKe&^^^^^^^k 

1     MjSStON     ^^JJ 

^H^SOOAiJ 

^^B    PilOSt>tCT$   j^^l 

PS^I 

^^■[fi^^HJ 

Hjj^^^^JH 

1^^^ 

REGISTER 

ATTENDANCE  &  OFFERING 

NUMBER  C  "7  fl 

ON  THE  ROLL        O  f  j. 

ATTENDANCE        C  1  n 
TODAY  OIU 


ATTENDANCE  A      y|  Tl  Q 

YEAfiAGOTODAY    ^UO 

°Kr  2046 


OFFERING  A    1  C  "7  C 
TEARAGOTO-DAY  X  U  f  D 


Different  forms  of  bulletin  boards. 
96 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


Register 


AHENDANCEaOFrERiNG 


ENROLLMENT 


ATTENDANCE 
TO-DAY 


OFFERING 
TO-DAY_ 


ATTENDANCE 
A  YEAR  AGO 


647 


538 


1299 


459 


A  YEAR  AGO 


Fei)l8M  ATTENDAISCE  ^!i^  OFFERINoHji^ 

BepnEril3  8M40^^Mlearagoj,  BJJain  39; 

:  Interirr'djBpWL^  TBarpBirtliilay 
1iTDept.f29Ml ;? ZlSAprJl'Missiflnary 
!McfeJrMSM47l  _ 

TeaiSlZ  I  ^^^^S3"Star  Classes  2R|7l8 
Total  M2  7  8^VisilorsWr4lHome  Dept.^M9  3' 


^tiipAini450l 


Differeut  forms  of  bulletin  boards. 
97 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

should  be  given  the  setting  which  will  make  it  the  most 
effective  ? 

To  illustrate :  There  is  value  in  occasional  compari- 
sons of  perfect  classes  in  the  various  departments. 
Extracts  from  the  reports  of  two  secretaries  are  given 
almost  verbatim — which  of  these  forms  would  have 
the  greater  tendency  to  make  that  information  re- 
membered ? 

"There  are  three  perfect  classes  in  the  Junior  De- 
partment to-day  and  two  in  the  Intermediate  Depart- 
ment." 

Here  is  the  other  one :  "Are  you  interested  in  base- 
ball ?  If  you  are,  you  heard  about  the  big  game  yester- 
day, even  if  you  were  not  lucky  enough  to 
Suggestion  ^^^  ^^-  Weren't  you  glad  that  the  home 
team  won  ?  You  remember  the  score  was 
three  to  two.  Well,  in  our  contest  for  perfect  attend- 
ance to-day,  the  Juniors  beat  the  Intermediates  by 
just  the  same  score — three  to  two.  Mr.  Smith's  and 
Miss  Thompson's  classes  scored  for  the  Intermediates 
and  Miss  Robinson's,  Miss  Clark's  and  Mr.  Johnson's 
classes  for  the  Juniors.  By  the  way,  do  you  remember 
that  the  winning  run  yesterday  was  scored  on  a  sacri- 
fice hit?  To-day  Frank  Smith,  in  Miss  Clark's  class, 
had  a  chance  to  go  out  with  an  automobile  party  for 
a  picnic  and  turned  it  down  in  order  to  come  to  Sunday 
school.  That  is  the  kind  of  a  sacrifice  that  makes  a  hit 
with  us.    Now  just  watch  the  score  next  Sunday." 

Of  course  it  is  only  very  occasionally  that  such  a  re- 
port as  that  could  be  possible;  it  was  simply  a  coinci- 
dence which  brought  it  about,  but  it  illustrated  thor- 
oughly the  methods  of  that  secretary  and  explained 
the  eagerness  with  which  the  reports  were  looked  for- 
ward to.     It  demonstrated  another  point,  that  the 

98 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


!    1     12       3 


UJ. 


1      2    I  3   I  4    I  5 


"Every  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest  ;  for  the 
day  shall  declare  it.  1  Cor.  5  :  13. 


Report   of_ 


For. 


.Quarter^  jg  


A  tteyidance. 
Lessofis 


(shozvn  by  margin) 


SuppleineJital  zvork. 
Co  n  (ill  c  t 


\  Punctuality 


^  Note  to  Parents.— The  pupil's  record  is  described  as 
"good,  fair,  or  poor." 

Parents  are  kindly  asked,  (1)  To  co-operate  in  secur- 
ing regular  aftendance,  which  is  held  to  be  of  prime 
importance.  (2 1  On  return  from  Sunday  School  to  ques- 
tion their  children  carefully  on  the  day's  lesson,  and  to 
impress,  during  the  week,  the  truth  taught.  <3)  To  assist 
children  dui-ing  the  week  in  learning  Golden  "Texts,  and 
any  other  special  work  assigned.  (4)  To  visit  the  school 
as  often  as  possible. 

Supt. 

N.  B.  No  home  preparation  of  lessons  is  asked  of 
children  in  the  Primary  Department  aside  from  memor- 
izing Golden  Texts  and  other  Bible  verses.  Record  for 
subject  matter  of  lesson  is  based  upon  knowledge  of 
facts  as  taught  at  Sunday  School.  The  Golden  Text  to 
be  memorized  is  always  that  of  the  lesson  taught  the  pre- 
vious Sunday.  Due  allowance  is  made  for  very  young 
children.  A  star  or  other  emblem  may  be  placed  in  upper 
left  hand  corner  ^at  option  of  teacher)  to  denote  any 
special  degree  of  excellence. 


VI 


H.  DIETZ,  CHICAGO 


Price,  50c  per  100 


99 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

secretary  had  the  enthusiastic  cooperation  of  the 
school,  for  without  that,  the  fact  of  the  boy's  giving  up 
his  Sunday  picnic  would  not  have  been  known  to  the 
secretary. 

The  report  should  always  have  one  outstanding 
characteristic — it  should  always  be  typically  "booster," 
always  enthusiastic.  Those  who  are  pres- 
Boo^ter  ^^^  should  not  be  taken  to  task  because 

others  are  absent.  It  is  far  better,  on  a 
rainy  Sunday,  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Tom 
Jones  came  three  miles  over  bad  roads  than  to  mention 
tlie  fact  that  Charles  Stewart,  who  lives  right  around 
the  corner,  is  not  present.  It  is  almost  an  invariable 
rule  that  tlie  secretary  who  cannot  find  tlie  bright  side 
of  the  school,  even  on  a  cloudy  day,  had  better  pass  the 
report  for  that  day  than  to  say  the  discouraging  things 
which  may  come  most  naturally.  The  wide-awake  sec- 
retary is  a  subscriber  to  Sunday  school  periodicals, 
those  of  his  own  denomination  first  and  foremost  and 
then  others,  such  as  the  Sunday  School  Times  and 
the  Sunday  School  Executive.  The  right  kind  of  a 
secretary  can  arouse  school  interest  in  what  other 
schools  are  doing,  and  by  the  information  which  can 
be  gleaned  from  these  various  papers,  can  make  a 
report  which  will  fairly  set  a  school  on  fire  with  enthu- 
siasm to  equal  the  record  of  some  other  school. 

Who  Should  Make  this  Report?  Preferably 
the  secretary ;  but  it  is  not  always  possible  to  find  the 
™,  ability  of  the  statistician  coupled  with  that 

Should  of  the  ready  speaker.    The  secretary  holds 

Make  the  h^q  position,  not  for  the  honor  of  the  title, 
but  because  of  the  opportunity  for  useful- 
ness. If  he  does  not  think  that  he  can  be  of  more  serv- 
ice here  than  elsewhere,  the  maximum  results  will 

100 


TO  THE  PARENT 


This  report  ift«tibmltte<)  to-yon  that  yon  may  be  able  to  form  an 
estimate  of  the  progress  being  made  by  your  child  io  his  or  her  Sunday 
School  work  Von  are  therefore  urged  to  examine  it  carefully  every 
month  and  to  Investigate  any  condition  that  may  appear  to  you  unsatis- 
Jactory      May  we  have  your  help  and  hearty  co-operation' 


1  have  carefhlly  examined  this  card 


Dept. 


Highest  marks  obtainable  for  the  month 
Lesson  book,  four;  Lesson  work  done  at  h\ 
citation,  fonr;  Deportment,  eight;  Review 
Memory  work,  twenty 


Please  sign  and  return  on  a 


(grarp  liett^abiat  Spiarapal  S'unJiag  ^rljonl 

NEWPORT    NEWS.    VIRGINIA 

MONTHLY  AND  QUARTERLY  REPORT 
Of         vUj  a-V-eAyt... 

<r^yy^   ^  Quarter    ^  ^eai-U^/Z 


:U 


Les<ion   Work 


■aytiy 


CU»t  No 6 

Rerord  of „-. ........Robert -Wolibach 

For  th«  BoaUi  of MatCh _. 

Second      Ye.,  JuoJor 


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he  year  must  be  obtained  to  be  promoted  with  distinetoo 


A  very  complete  system  of  reports  to  the  parents.  These  reproduc- 
tions of  actual  cards  show  that  this  work  can  be  done  efficiently,  and 
schools  which  have  tried  it,  testify  to  its  value. 

101 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

never  follow.  With  this  viewpoint,  he  is  ready  to  turn 
over  to  the  superintendent  his  data  for  the  report,  if 
the  superintendent  can  present  them  in  a  more  effec- 
tive way,  but  this  is  seldom  necessary.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  superintendent  should  recognize  the  report 
as  being  one  of  the  privileges  as  well  as  the  duty  of  the 
secretary  and  should  never  try  to  usurp  it,  and  espe- 
cially should  not  comment  on  special  features  of  the 
school  in  advance  of  the  secretary,  as  this  frequently 
entirely  upsets  a  carefully  prepared  report.  Nearly 
any  secretary  can  make  a  good  report  if  the  proper 
effort  is  made  in  its  preparation.  It  may  take  some 
time  to  catch  the  spirit  and  some  effort  at  first  to  make 
the  report  in  public.  There  will  be  some  experiment- 
ing before  the  best  line  of  approach  is  found,  but  it  is 
well  worth  the  preparedness  effort. 

The  new  secretary  needs  another  suggestion  here. 
The  report  is  not  something  which  comes  as  an  inspira- 
tion or  which  is  prepared  on  the  spur  of  the  moment. 
The  modern  secretary  always  has  the  report  outlined 
before  Sunday  comes.  Of  course  there  are  many  times 
when  some  feature  will  come  up,  some  incident  which 
has  the  greatest  of  immediate  value,  many  things 
which  may  make  a  substitution  advisable,  but  there  is 
always  the  outline  to  fall  back  on,  always  some  inter- 
esting data  or  some  touch  of  outside  interest  which  can 
enliven  a  monotonous  session.  "Preparedness"  is  a 
fundamental  in  this  phase  of  the  secretary's  work. 

How  Much  Time  Should  Be  Given  to  the 
Report?  Usually  from  two  to  five  minutes,  depend- 
ing upon  the  time  available  and  the 
Necess^s^y  importance  of  certain  features  in  the  indi- 
vidual report.  It  is  exceedingly  helpful 
to  supplement  the  verbal  report  with  the  bulletin 

102 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


First  Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday  School 

Topeka,    Kansas 
OFFICE  OF  THE  SECRETARIES 


Every  class  has  its  own  effect  on  the  attendance  records  for  the  school— 
you  must  either  raise  the  average  or  lower  it  Would  you  not  rather  push  up 
than  pull  down? 

The  school  average  for dwvsJt was..jfL£l %~ 

the  average  for  cUss  ^o.^-XTf. __was. — 7 J^_ Jo i~S).. - 

of  the.._ 5L.I _ classes  which  had  a  better  percent  have  ,a  larger 

enrollment. 

Are  you  satisfied?  Can  you  not  do  even  better  next  month?  Have  you 
asked  any  o'f  the  secretaries  for  suggestions?  Are  you  making  use  of  the 
Membership  Committee? 

The  Sunday  School  Board  meeting  is  a  mighty  good  place  to  bring  your 
problems.    Try  it  next  time.  jj   jj    McENTIRE,  General  Secretary. 

„ „ Dep't  Secretary. 


A  report  to  the  class  of  its  standing  in  the  school. 


-Wfe  rfon'f  ei«  down  and  ait.  but  we  get  uo  and  »rt 

CENTRAL  M.  E.  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

"The  School  That  DoesThings" 

RELATIVE  STANDING  OF  YOUR  CLASS  FOR  MONTH  OF . 

NAME ... 


^If-ei^e" 

sl7.„ 

Enr'oCnt    A^'n'Sree     P"  Cent 

total 
Offering 

Average 
Offering 

Scholar 

NumeiicBJ  Standing 

■ 

1 

Decision. 

^-i 

Teacher  s  Attendance  Record 
S.  S.         1     Church      1  Prayer  Ser.|S   S.  Board 

1                         1                          1 

The  Members  of  your  class  whose  names  appear  on  attached  reply  card  have  been  placed  on  reaerve  duiing 
the  month.  In  order  that  the  Sunday  School  may  render  all  possible  assistance,  would  ask  that  you  kindly  report 
on  these  names  with  any  inlprmalicn  you  may  possess  as  to  whether  scholar  i»sick..out  ol  the  city,  haa  bten  visit- 
ed of  written,  as  well  as  any  suggestion^  you  may  wish  to  offer. 

Kindly  retura  attached  card  with  this  information,  not  later  than  .,-..»* —   -.-.. . • 

Yours  for  Service. 

Dale 191  ...  '  SupeiiniendenI 

Another  f(»rm   for  reporting  to  the  class,   which  provides  for 
very  comprehensive  record. 

103 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

board.  This  may  be  one  of  the  more  convenient  ones 
with  movable  letters  and  figures,  the  old  reliable  black- 
board, or  the  large  poster  sheet,  if  neither  of  the  others 
is  available.  Where  there  is  no  opportunity  for  re- 
porting the  figures  of  the  present  Sunday  until  a  week 
later,  a  bulletin  board  is  all  that  is  usually  used.  In 
making  the  regular  report  to  the  school,  the  bulletin 
carries  the  strictly  statistical  information  for  the  lim- 
ited number  of  people  who  are  interested  in  it,  but  does 
not  force  it  on  the  others  at  a  sacrifice  of  valuable  time. 
Again,  the  report  should  not  cover  the  same  features, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  while  there  are  some  items 
which  never  vary,  except  in  detail,  and  these  find  their 
logical  place  on  the  bulletin  board.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, to  stimulate  interest  in  comparative  records  until 
the  children  will  gather  around  the  board  at  the  close 
of  school  to  see  how  their  class  or  department  stands. 
In  this  phase,  the  secretary  can  take  lessons  from  the 
athletically  inclined  public.  Both  the  box  scores  on 
the  bulletin  boards  and  the  story  of  the  game,  with  its 
numerous  little  items  of  interest  and  of  personalities, 
have  their  place. 

It  is  impossible  to  arouse  interest  in  a  secretary's 
report  without  the  little  elaboration  which  will  call  for 
a  few  minutes  of  time.  It  is  almost  imj^ossible  to  hold 
the  interest  if  too  much  detail  is  used  in  a  lengthy 
report.  There  are  times  when  the  eager  interest  of  the 
scholars  will  justify  another  minute  or  two,  and  there 
are  also  times  when  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  school 
calls  for  brevity.  The  experienced  secretary  has  his 
finger  on  the  pulse  of  the  school  and  usually  knows 
when  to  stop.  There  are,  in  reality,  more  cases  where 
the  secretary  is  unduly  limited  in  the  opportunity  for 
this  report  than  where  the  privilege  is  abused. 

104 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 


Record  of  S.  S.  Board  Meeting 


ORDER  OF  BUSINESS 


2.  Calling  tha  Roll 


8.   Reoort  from  I 


9.    Reoort  from  Pastor  aoa  S.  S. 


S.   Reports  from  Comn 


A  sample  page  from  a  secretary's  book,  providing  for  tlie  minutes  of 
the  teachers'  meeting. 


Two  devices  used  by  aggressive  secretaries  for  stimulating  attendance, 

105 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

The  Report  to  the  Sunday  School  Board 

The  Sunday  School  Board,  the  superintendent's 
cabinet,  the  teachers'  meeting,  the  workers'  council, 
or  whatever  name  may  be  given  the  organization,  is 
composed  of  co-workers  who  have  had  the  opportunity 
of  hearing  the  secretary's  weekly  report  to  the  school, 
and  who  will,  therefore,  be  more  or  less  familiar  with 
all  of  the  details  which  it  covers.  For  this  reason  there 
is  little  use  in  going  into  the  matter  of  comparative  at- 
tendance, enrollment,  etc.,  and  the  time  of  the  report  is 
more  properly  spent  in  laying  before  the  Board  the 
problems  with  which  it  is  the  business  of  that  body  to 
deal. 

In  this  connection,  the  secretary  will  need  to  put 
continual  emphasis  on  the  fact  that  the  optimistic  side 
is  the  one  which  is  presented  at  the  session  of  the  Sun- 
day school,  that  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  has  its  place 
at  that  time,  but  that  the  Board  meeting  is  properly 
the  place  for  the  presentation  and  discussion  of  the 
knotty  problems,  and  tlie  sometimes  disagreeable 
j^roblems,  which  a  real  secretary  will  uncover  in  every 
school. 

There  is  no  other  phase  of  the  work  which  offers 
such  an  opportunity  to  be  of  real  service  to  the  fellow 
workers  as  does  the  Sunday  School  Board  meeting. 
The  secretary  can  study  any  particular  problem,  bring 
the  data  to  bear  on  it  from  every  angle,  and  present  it 
to  the  Board  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  be  handled  expe- 
ditiously and  at  the  same  time  wisely.  Without  the 
check  of  complete  and  accurate  records,  many  a  Board 
meeting  resolves  itself  into  an  expression  of  opinions 
or  prejudices  instead  of  real  constructive  thinking  and 
planning. 

106 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT 

The  recording  of  the  minutes  of  the  meeting  of  the 
Board  is  very  largely  an  incidental  feature  of  the  work 
of  the  secretary,  although  accuracy  is  called  for  and 
the  aggressive  secretary  can  add  little  individual 
touches  which  will  make  even  this  business  report  in- 
teresting. 


107 


CHAPTER  X 

PROSPECTIVE  MEMBERS 

There  is  an  increasing  tendency  to  judge  the  school 
not  alone  from  the  standard  of  lesson  instruction,  but 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  degree  to  which 
View*  ®^^  the  members  carry  out  the  present-day 
application  of  the  teaching  by  their  work 
in  making  a  school  an  aggressive  force  in  the  com- 
munity. The  Christian  Church  started  on  the  basis 
of  each  one  bringing  others,  and  the  modern  Sunday 
school  is,  to  say  the  very  least,  missing  a  big  oppor- 
tunity if  it  is  not  actively  carrying  out  this  principle. 
The  school  without  an  active  propaganda  is  usually 
either  going  back  or  else  sinking  deeper  into  a  rut  as 
a  result  of  simply  "marking  time."  The  secretary's 
records  form  the  basis  for  a  great  deal  of  this  follow- 
up  work,  and  all  of  it  should  be  reported  to  the  office, 
whether  it  originates  there  or  not. 

When  a  new  member  is  enrolled  information  should 
be  secured  as  to  members  of  the  family  who  are  not  in 
Sunday  school,  and  this  is  frequently  ex- 
Family  tended  into  a  list  of  friends.  This  in- 
formation should  be  immediately  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  proper  parties  by  the  enrollment 
secretary,  or  whoever  attends  to  the  enrollment  details. 
There  may  be  a  membership  secretary  or  committee, 
or  the  work  may  be  left  to  the  individual  class  or 
teacher  or,  as  in  some  cases,  investigated  by  the  Home 
Department  visitors.    In  any  event,  no  school  should 


PROSPECTIVE  MEMBERS 

be  satisfied  until  it  has  exhausted  every  possible  means 
of  bringing  in  every  member  of  the  family,  when  one 
member  unites  with  the  school. 

In  this  connection  the  secretary  will  need  to  do  edu- 
cational work  in  arousing  classes  to  their  duty  in  this 
connection.  If  there  is  a  men's  class  in  the  school 
which  starts  out  on  a  membership  campaign,  it  should 
be  influenced  to  extend  its  work  to  every  member  of 
the  family,  and  the  results  of  the  campaign  should  be 
checked  up  j  ust  as  thoroughly  on  the  number  of  mem- 
bers which  it  bi'ings  into  other  departments  of  the 
school  as  on  the  increase  in  its  own  membership. 

Nearly  every  school  can  secure  from  its  own  mem- 
bers a  list  of  others  in  the  community  who  are  not  con- 
nected with  any  school,  and  there  is  no  better  training 
for  the  young  workers  than  is  found  in  going  after 
new  members.  Our  classes  should,  in  a  very  real  sense, 
be,  each  one  of  them,  a  training  class,  and  in  this  line 
of  work  it  is  not  at  all  necessar}^  that  they  complete 
their  course  and  graduate  before  beginning  work. 
There  are  no  union  rules  limiting  the  number  of  ap- 
prentices or  the  hours  of  work  in  the  Master's  vine- 
yard. 

Another  place  where  the  secretary's  records  furnish 
available  material  is  in  checking  over  those  who  drop 
out  from  some  reason  such  as  work  or  sickness.  These 
should  be  very  carefully  followed  up  and  brought  back 
into  active  membership  just  as  soon  as  possible.  Then, 
too,  many  of  those  who  ''leaked  out"  a  few  years  ago 
may  be  brouglit  back  through  some  influence,  perhaps 
that  of  having  children  of  tlieir  own  now  in  the  Sun- 
day school. 

The  matter  of  the  details  of  a  town,  community,  or 
neighborhood  survey  differs  so  decidedly  with  the 

109 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


To. 


tko  oam*  given  below  10  that  of 

A    PROSPECTIVE    MEMBER 

or  OPe  who  alioul<l,  for  Bopae  very  apecial  reason,  be  inviteJ  to  Join 

OUR    SUNDAY    SCHOOL 

For  an  equally  ^ecific  reason,  YOU  can  best  extend  tbis 

INVITATION 

Will  you  not  do  BO,  tbis  week,  using  the  orber  side  of  tbis  card  for  your  report  ? 
Please  remember  tbat  no  one  else  bas  this  name  and  tbe  scbool  is  counting  on  you. 


Signed. 


Name. 
Addiei 


Helpful  information. 


The  Methodist  Book  Concern.     New  York-Cincinoau 


The  first  step  in  a  most  important  directiou,  the  seeking  out  of  possi- 
ble new  members  of  the  school. 


Committee  Report  on  Prospective   Members. 

Report  of  visits  to  Prospective  Members  wljose  names  are  given  on  the  reverse  side 
of  this  card  is  as  follows: 

Date  of  Visit  Report 


No.  I._ 
No.  2.. 
No.  3._ 
No.  4.. 


Commitfec 


RCQUCai  TO  OOMMITTEB  ON  Revcrsc  Sidc. 


33  CENTS  PCIt    iOO 


A  card  for  the  report  of  those  who  have  been  soliciting  prospective 
members. 

110 


PROSPECTIVE  MEMBERS 


Date- 


Cjx  Che  ^'uftvtnUtxiitni: 

The  following  of  my  brothers  aai  sisters  do  not  attend  any  Sunday  School 
and  possibly  may  be  persuaded  to  join  our  Sunday  School. 


Scholars  will  please  fill  thu  out  and  hand  to  teacher. 

When  any  of  the  children  whose  names  are  on  this  card  join  our  Sunday  School  the  scholar  first  sub- 
mitting same  will  be  given  credit.  (ovep) 


One  method  of  securing  a  list  of  those  who  should  be  connected  with 
the  school.     This  covers  family  connections. 


Prospective  Members  for 


Sunday  School 


i  desire  to  report  the  following  as  prospective  members  for  our 
Sunday  School. 

Name  Address  Apt 


FcKMP.  (     Thc  LATia-r,  Ci 


Reported  by. 


CTB  PER  lOO        A'DDRCSS. 


Another  form  for  securing  the  names  of  prospects. 
Ill 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

change  of  conditions  and  in  the  larger  places  becomes 
so  much  a  matter  of  intricate  systems,  as  to  not  have 
a  place  in  a  strict  consideration  of  Sunday  school 
records.  The  recording  of  the  results  of  such  a  survey 
or  canvass  does,  however,  become  a  part  of  the  records 
of  the  school. 

Outside  of  the  usual  method  of  simply  recording  the 
names  in  a  book  or  on  cards,  the  map  system  is  per- 
haps the  easiest  and  is  certainly  the  most 
Systenf^  graphic.  The  map  itself  may  be  a  regu- 
larly printed  one  or  simply  a  rough  out- 
line drawing.  Wliere  this  system  is  used,  tacks  or  pins 
witli  different  colored  heads  are  put  on  the  map,  one 
color  being  utilized  to  show  the  members  of  tlie  school, 
and  anotlier  color  to  show  those  wlio  have  no  connec- 
tion with  any  Sunday  school  and  may,  therefore,  be 
fairly  considered  j^rospective  members.  If  a  red  tack, 
for  example,  is  used  to  indicate  a  non- Sunday  school 
member,  and  the  map  with  all  of  these  tacks  is  kept 
before  the  Sunday  school,  and  constant  emphasis  put 
upon  the  desirability  of  removing  tlie  tacks  of  that 
particular  color  and  substituting  the  ones  showing 
active  membership,  the  effect  on  the  Sunday  school  as 
a  whole  is  decidedly  beneficial. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  necessity  for  active  work,  in 
endeavoring  to  reach  those  who  are  not  affiliated  with 
any  Sunday  school,  three  sets  of  statistics  will  serve  to 
show  something  about  how  large  a  percentage  are  still 
outside  of  the  school. 

According  to  the  United  States  census,  only  thirty- 
eight  per  cent  of  the  population  are  connected  with 
Statistics  ^^^  Sunday  school  or  church,  Protestant, 

Catholic,  or  Jewish. 

Less  than  one  half  of  all  under  twentj^-one  years  of 

112 


PROSPECTIVE  MEMBERS 


You  are  invited  to  visit  the  First  M.  E.  Sunday  School. 
Decatur,  111.,  Church  and  North  Sts.  You  are  invited  to 
attend  if  you  are  not  enrolled  elsewhere. 

Graded  School  to  meet  the  needs  of  all  ages. 

Course  of  religious  instruction  covering  25  years. 


Graduation  Day,  Sept.  19,  1915. 
rromotlon  Day,  Sept.  26,  1915. 


New  Term  be^ns  Oct.  3,  1913, 
Rally  Day,  Oct.    17,   1915. 


For  further  information  see  the  Superintendent.  Office 
hours,  Wednesday  and  Saturday,  2  to  5  p.  m.  at  the  church. 

Home  address,  R.  F.  D.  6,  Decatur  Home  Phone,  Bell, 
County,  953— Ring  4. 


Presented  by. 


~«9- 


Dear  Frtend^ 

■\X7 E  understand  that  you  are  not  a  member  of  any  Sunday  school 
^        at  present,  and  therefore  cordially  invite  you  to  come  and 

join  with — Sunday  School.     We  are  sure 

you  will  find  a  warm  welcome  awaiting  you. 

The  opening  service  begins  at o'clock. 

Do  not  forget  to  ask  for ^-.— — 

Cordially  yours, 


Two  forms  which  are  used  in  approaching  prospective  members. 
They  will  help  open  the  way  or  will  supplement  a  personal  visit,  but 
cannot  take  the  place  of  a  personally  extended  invitation. 

113 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

age  are  in  any  Sunday  school  or  church,  Protestant, 
Catholic,  or  Jewish. 

"Billy"  Sunday  says  that  there  are  13,000,000 
young  men  in  the  United  States;  1,000,000  active  in 
church  work,  5,000,000  attending  occasionally  and 
7,000,000  with  no  church  connection,  Protestant, 
Catholic,  or  Jewish. 

Another  of  our  leaders  says  that  there  are  four  boys 
out  of  Sunday  school  to  every  one  in  Sunday  school. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  importance  of  per- 
sonal work  on  the  part  of  the  individual  members  of 
each  class.  The  secretary  soon  finds  out  that  publicity 
is  a  very  effective  method  of  promotion.  If  there  is 
some  way  by  wliich  rej)orts  are  secured  as  to  the  work 
tliat  is  being  done  by  each  individual,  class,  or  depart- 
ment, and  attention  is  called  to  residts  obtained,  it  will 
decidedly  stimulate  others.  Tlie  forms  illustrated 
show  how  some  schools  follow  up  this  f)articular  phase 
of  class  activity. 

The  average  Sundaj^  school  scholar  has  had  the  idea 
thoroughly  instilled  that  "we  will  reap  what  we  sow." 
The  modern  Sunday  school  is  laying  almost  equal 
emphasis  on  the  necessity  of  "sowing  again  what  we 
have  reaped."  This  is  one  of  the  practical  tests  which 
the  secretary  will  apply  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Sunday 
school. 

The  membership  contests  which  are  a  feature  of 
many  schools,  while  they  greatly  increase  the  work  of 
Contests  *^^  secretary,  offer  at  the  same  time,  one 

of  the  best  opportunities  for  actually 
judging  the  merits  of  the  plan.  The  slow,  steady 
growth  which  comes  from  either  the  personal  work  of 
the  members  of  the  school  or  from  the  reputation  and 
standing  of  the  school  in  the  community  because  of 

114 


PROSPECTIVE  MEMBERS 


U 
U 

0) 


CO 


< 

a; 


115 


BIBLE  CLASS  SUGGESTION  AND 
RECORD  CARD 


I  desire  to  suggest  the  name  of 


as  a  possible  new  member  of  our  Class,  who,  as  I 
formal,  is  not  connected  with  any  Bible  Class. 


Business  or 
Prolessioa^ 


Siened^ 


A  MliUBtK  OK  THIS  CLAi^ 


Above  suggestion  presented  and  adopted 


RECORD: 


of  the  Class  promised  to  call  upon  the  person  proposed, 
during  the  ■week,  extend  the  invitation,  and  report  to  the 
Cl^as  next  Sunday 


Siffntd^ 


CLASS  SECRETAUy. 


NOllL:  Work  worth  doing  is  worth  recording!  Let 
Class  Secretary  preserve  this  Card  and  report  on  the  baik 
of  it  each  Sunday  the  number  of  calls  reported. 

Do  not  abandon  the  effort  until  the  Class  votes  to  do 
so,  because  it  is  a  matter  of  Class  Interest. 

Do  not  give,up  too  quick.  There  isrecord  of  one  man 
who  received  77  calls  and  urgentinvitations.  He  said  "'No" 
77  times.  Then  he  decided  that  77  times  was  often  enough 
to  say  •No."  and  the  next  time  he  said  "Yes,"  and  they  g.it 
him,  and  were  glad  they  had  not  thought  77  was  enough, 
and  went  again. 


A  form  which  is  used  in  class  work. 


Class  No. 

Please  return  this  card  with  the  Class  envelope 
TODAY  SURE 

How  many  invitations  to  join  our  Sunday  School  were 
extended  this  week  by  the  teacher  and  members  of  this 

Class? 

How  many  new  members  were  actually  secured? 


This  little  form  is  used  in  one  school,  and  is  frequently 
inclosed  with  the  class  envelope.  It  serves  to  keep  a  check  on 
the  activities  of  each  class. 

116 


rUOSPECTlVE  ME.MEERS 

some  especially  high  standard  of  work  done,  will  make 
a  very  different  permanent  record  from  the  enthusi- 
astic campaign  which  enlists  parades,  extensive  adver- 
tising, rewards,  etc.  The  secretary  who  will  follow 
closely  the  record  of  the  scholars  who  come  in  during 
such  a  campaign,  see  what  percentage  really  becomes 
active,  trace  through  the  campaign  the  effect  of  Chris- 
tian homes,  see  what  classes  or  departments  hold  the 
members  that  are  brought  to  them  and  which  lose 
them,  and  analyze  the  reasons  for  the  withdrawals  and 
from  every  angle  study  the  problem,  will  have  abso- 
lutely dependable  data  upon  w^hich  the  governing  body 
of  the  school  can  base  its  decision  as  regards  future 
campaigns. 


iiv 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  RURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

In  the  majority  of  cases  the  Sunday  school  in  the 
small  village  or  in  the  rural  districts  has  the  feeling 
that  the  methods  of  record-keeping  which  may  be  of 
value  in  the  larger  city  schools  have  no  place  in  theirs. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  facts  are  that  there  are  schools 
in  rural  districts,  meeting  in  country  schoolhouses  and 
with  no  other  religious  services  in  connection  with  the 
school,  which  have  records  which  would  shame  many  a 
big  city  school.  While  there  may  be  some  of  the  fea- 
tures of  special  work  which  would  not  be  applicable  in 
these  schools,  there  are  others  which  would  take  their 
place,  and  the  fundamentals  of  record-keeping  are 
just  as  important  in  the  one  school  as  in  the  other. 

When  we  realize  how  large  a  percentage  of  the  Sun- 
day schools  are  in  the  rural  districts,  and  when  we 
remember  that  in  the  Methodist  Church,  for  example, 
the  average  Sunday  school  has  an  enrollment  of  less 
than  one  hundred,  we  begin  to  see  why  it  is  that  there 
should  be  records  from  these  schools,  complete  and 
accurate,  which  would  aid  the  leaders  in  planning  the 
work,  and  in  issuing  the  supplies  upon  which  the  life 
of  the  rural  school  will  depend. 

The  records  of  enrollment,  attendance,  absence,  and 
withdrawal  should  be  just  as  carefully  kept  in  the  one 
school  as  in  the  other.  The  farmer  who  keeps  his  farm 
records  in  modern  shape  and  can  tell  from  his  books 
just  what  every  phase  of  the  farm  activities,  agricul- 

118 


THE  EURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tural,  horticultural,  dairy,  live  stock  or  butter  and 
eggs,  means  in  dollars  and  cents,  is  the  one  who  can 
build  Sunday  school  records  which  will  have  value. 

The  illustrations  which  the  secretary  will  use  may 
differ  from  those  of  some  of  the  large  schools  in  the 
cities,  but  the  basis  is  exactly  the  same.  For  example, 
when  the  secretary  takes  up  with  the  teachers  the  im- 
portance of  studying  absences  and  withdrawals  and  is 
urging  that  these  be  followed  up,  an  argument  of  this 
nature,  heard  in  a  rural  school  convention,  brings  the 
matter  strictly  home.  The  speaker  asked  how  many 
of  those  present  owned  a  cow.  Of  course  practically 
every  one  did.  The  next  question  was,  "What  would 
you  do  if  the  cow  got  out  of  the  pasture?"  Among  all 
the  various  answers  came  the  one  which  was  of  course, 
desired,  "Hunt  her  up,  get  her  back,  find  where  she  got 


f>laU 


';^^1;"!>tal  Schnoiy    SliND/LY  SCHOOL 
yo/ra^tLo"'^  I— J  «  ■  i  k  v  f.  w 

figures  =  /^  A)  'H  Fa 

5  c__V_oo  I 

MUtlt 

MolTier* 


3    SUNDA.Y  SCHOOL       Pr'efrey^ce 

1  SURVEY  t'Ak>lo^isl^a 


O"*"*  tot'<«  poo' 


'j^^o;^')^  |3c>»ool 


119 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

out,  and  ^x  the  fence."  The  problem  of  getting  co- 
operation in  the  study  of  withdrawals  was  solved. 

There  is  just  as  much  difference  between  the  way 
two  teachers  hold  their  classes  in  a  rural  school  as  be- 
tween any  two  in  a  city  school,  and  the  secretary's 
records  can  just  as  unerringly  test  the  methods  of 
those  two  teachers  in  one  school  as  in  the  other. 

Regularity  of  attendance  is  equally  of  importance, 
and  the  secretary  of  the  rural  Sunday  school  can  study 
the  school,  find  out  why  its  members  come  and  why 
others  do  not  come,  more  accurately  in  the  rural  school 
than  ip  the  city  school.  There  is  a  closer  acquaintance, 
a  personal  touch  which  cannot  exist  in  the  school  where 
the  attendance  runs  up  into  the  hundreds.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  rural  school  becomes  the  center  of 
the  social  and  religious  life,  and  under  the  leadership 
of  the  wise  superintendent  whose  plans  are  laid  upon 
the  foundations  furnished  by  the  secretary,  it  becomes 
the  leading  force  of  the  community. 

In  the  rural  school  the  secretary  will  undoubtedly 
attend  to  practically  all  of  the  details.  The  children 
will  appreciate  just  as  much  a  birthday  greeting  as 
though  they  lived  in  the  city.  They  will  respond  to  the 
various  lines  of  appeal  which  may  come  through  the 
little  note  or  the  telephone  call  just  as  readily  as  if  they 
did  not  live  on  a  farm. 

Perhaps  the  one  phase  of  the  work  which  offers  the 
greatest  opportunity  to  the  rural  school  secretary  is 
the  properly  made  and  carefully  kejjt  up  survey  of  all 
of  the  people  wJio  live  in  the  territory  which  is  tribu- 
tary to  that  school.  The  illustration  shows  a  survey 
made  by  a  rural  Sunday  school  meeting  in  a  country 
schoolhouse.  It  is  exceptionally  complete,  but  simply 
shows  what  can  be  done  by  an  energetic  secretary. 

120 


West  Indianola  Sunday 
School  Survey. 


Name . 

No,  in  Family 

No.  in  Sunday  School 

No.  in  Home  Department 

No,  in  Cradle  Roll 

Church  Preference 

No,  of  Members 

No.  of  Prcfessing  Christians     . . 

No.  of  Acres  in  Farm. 

Owner  or  Tenant 

How  long  have  you  lived  in  the  neighborhood 
Remarks. 


121 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

The  chart  is  absolutely  homemade,  and  the  informa- 
tion was  all  compiled  by  volunteer  workers  from  the 
Sunday  school. 

Where  such  a  survey  is  made  and  the  results  are 
kept  constantly  before  the  school,  it  will  be  but  a  short 
time  until  the  majority  of  all  of  the  people  in  that 
district  will  have  some  connection  with  the  school. 
The  failure  on  the  part  of  the  average  school  to  get 
to  work  and  to  win  its  community  is  due  largely  to 
the  lack  of  some  one  to  assume  the  leadership  and  to 
point  out  what  really  needs  the  doing.  The  average 
man  on  the  farm  does  not  need  to  be  told  what  to  do  if 
he  finds  some  pest  infesting  his  neighbor's  field;  he 
knows  that  his  neighbor's  affairs  become  his  own,  and 
when  he  once  gets  the  vision  of  Sunday  school  work 
which  the  secretary  can  give  him,  he  realizes  that  the 
religious  welfare  of  his  neighbor  and  his  neighbor's 
children  is  likewise  his  affair.  The  rural  Sunday 
school  worker  who  is  asked  what  he  would  do  if  he 
rented  his  farm  on  shares  and  then  came  back  and 
found  the  tenant  working  only  perhaps  a  third  of  it 
and  knowing  absolutely  nothing  about  the  rest  of  it, 
requires  but  little  persuasion  to  get  out  and  help  to  see 
that  that  Sunday  school  thoroughly  cultivates  all  of 
its  section  of  the  Master's  vineyard. 

The  Sunday  school  teacher  who  is  carefully  pre- 
paring her  vegetable  patch  is  in  a  responsive  mood 
for  the  approach  of  the  secretary  with  the  report  that 
some  of  the  boys  who  dropped  out  of  her  class  a  short 
time  ago  might  have  been  held  had  she  as  carefully 
prepared  the  soil  for  the  reception  of  the  seed  which 
was  to  have  been  sown  in  the  teaching  of  the  lesson  and 
from  this  angle  the  between- Sundays  work  can  be 
stimulated. 

12^ 


THE  RURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  secretary  who  carefully  studies  tlie  records  of 
the  rural  school,  not  only  of  his  own  but  those  of  any 
others  with  which  he  can  get  in  touch,  will  probably  be 
able  to  furnish  very  conclusive  data  as  to  the  effect  of 
inadequate  building  and  equipment,  and  the  wealthy 
farm  owner  who  has  just  invested  large  amounts  of 
money  in  the  housing  of  his  machinery  and  in  barns 
and  granaries  for  the  care  of  the  crops,  can  usually  be 
reached  when  he  can  see  the  benefits  put  down  in  plain 
figures. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  it  is  more  difficult  to 
get  the  Sunday  school  work  properly  financed  in  the 
small  school,  but  the  secretary  who  can  demonstrate 
that  all  of  the  members  of  the  school  can  be  registered 
and  every  phase  of  the  school  work  recorded  for  an 
entire  year  for  what  it  would  cost  to  register  one,  or 
at  the  outside,  two  of  the  herd  of  thoroughbred  cattle 
belonging  to  one  of  their  active  members,  should  not 
have  much  difficulty  in  getting  the  funds  necessary  for 
the  proper  carrying  on  of  this  work. 

The  secretary  of  the  rural  school  should  be  espe- 
cially well  informed  on  rural  school  work  and  should 
be  ready  to  analyze  the  records  of  the  school  from  this 
viewpoint.  He  should  also  know  what  is  going  on  in 
other  schools,  because  he  can,  in  this  way,  bring  in- 
formation and  stimulating  suggestions  which  probably 
would  never  reach  the  majority  of  members  in  any 
other  way. 

The  secretary  of  the  rural  school  will  need  the 
broadest  vision  of  the  possibilities  and  the  greatest 
degree  of  faith  for  the  final  working  out  of  the  plans. 
It  is  impossible  to  tell  what  effect  the  work  done  in 
one  school  may  have  in  another.  As  an  example,  the 
school  which  prepared  the  chart  shown  in  the  illus- 

123 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

tration  did  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the  good  which  it 
would  do  them.  This  was  reahzed  when  they  found 
better  than  seventy-five  per  cent  of  all  of  the  people 
in  that  community  enrolled  in  some  department  of  that 
Sunday  school.  However,  the  influence  of  that  survey 
did  not  stop  there.  The  adjoining  district  took  the 
matter  up,  made  a  survey,  used  it  in  the  upbuilding  of 
their  school,  but  in  the  making  of  the  survey  discov- 
ered a  spirit  of  unity  among  those  who  were  members 
of  various  denominations,  and  through  the  Sunday 
school  as  a  nucleus  brought  all  of  these  church  people 
together,  and  within  eighteen  months  after  the  Sunday 
school  survey  was  made  there  was  a  church  across  the 
road  from  that  schoolhouse,  a  minister  trained  in  rural 
work  installed,  and  tlie  church  and  the  schoolhouse  are 
the  social  and  religious  centers  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. The  work  started  from  the  efforts  of  a  rural 
Sunday  school  secretary  to  increase  the  enrollment  in 
one  school. 

In  the  rural  school,  the  secretary  is  most  logically 
the  advertising  or  publicity  man,  whether  he  is  given 
that  title  or  not.  Work  of  this  nature  is  perhaps  more 
effective  here  than  in  the  large  city  schools  because  of 
the  fact  that  the  rural  Sunday  school  has  an  excep- 
tional opportunity  in  ministering  to  all  phases  of  the 
life  of  its  members. 

Opportunities  in  this  connection  are  almost  unlim- 
ited, ranging  from  verbal  announcements  to  hand- 
lettered  posters;  printed  handbills,  fre- 
er p^blic?ty  quently  run  off  on  a  little  printing  press 
which  is  the  property  of  the  Sunday 
school;  newspaper  notices,  and  taking  in  perhaps 
school  fans  and  a  school  calendar.  In  connection  with 
the  latter  form  of  publicity,  one  school  secured  splen- 

124 


THE  RURAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

did  results  by  putting  out,  free  of  charge,  a  plain, 
simple  calendar,  with  a  sheet  for  each  month,  some 
appropriate  school  information  on  each  sheet,  etc.  In 
addition  to  this,  every  special  day — Children's  Day, 
Easter,  the  annual  picnic.  Rally  Day,  Christmas — and 
several  others  which  this  school  observes,  were  marked 
on  the  calendar  by  a  little  printed  sticker  which  cov- 
ered the  date.  The  school  carried  this  plan  to  the 
extent  of  appointing  some  one  person  to  be  in  charge 
(^f  each  one  of  these  special  days,  and  on  the  sticker 
indicating  this  day  was  the  name  of  the  person  who 
was  in  chai-ge. 

This  not  only  emphasized  these  particular  days  with 
everybody  in  the  community,  but  there  was  a  personal 
interest  in  it  because  of  loyalty  to  the  individual  in 
charge.  It  also,  most  logically,  had  the  effect  of  mak- 
ing the  person  who  was  known  to  everybody  in  the 
community  as  having  the  responsibility  especially 
anxious  that  his  or  her  day  should  be  the  most  suc- 
cessf  id  of  any  during  the  year.  In  this  case,  again,  the 
plan  simply  originated  with  the  secretary;  the  work 
was  all  done  by  the  other  members  of  the  school,  and 
the  school  as  a  whole  reaped  the  benefits. 

From  the  matter  of  finances,  work  of  this  nature 
brings  big  returns.  There  are  always  individuals  in 
every  community  who  are  willing  to  pay  the  extra  fare 
for  a  ride  in  the  observation  car  if  they  think  that  the 
trip  looks  sufficiently  attractive  and  they  are  easily 
influenced  by  the  advertising. 


125 


CHAPTER  XII 
DECISION  DAY 

Has  the  Sunday  School  secretary  anything  to  do 
with  this  phase  of  the  work  of  the  schools  He  has  a 
most  vital  part. 

The  reports  which  are  called  for  from  denomina- 
tional schools  have  inquiries  as  to  the  number  of  mem- 
bers who  are  members  of  the  chiu'ch,  while  those  from 
the  International  Sunday  Scliool  Association  ask  for 
the  number  of  conversions  or  church  accessions.  The 
secretary  must,  therefore,  have  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  school  from  both  of  these  angles. 

The  mere  matter  of  church  membership  is  informa- 
tion which  is  secured  from  the  enrollment  or  applica- 
tion cards.  When  this  is  properly  shown  by  classes 
and  departments,  it  is  very  easy  to  determine  the  aver- 
age age  at  which  this  step  is  taken,  and  when  the 
records  of  the  individual  school  are  compared  with 
those  which  are  accepted  generally,  it  is  very  easy  to 
determine  whether  or  not  the  school  is  up  to  the  gen- 
eral average  in  this  very  important  pliase  of  the  work. 

These  data,  however,  which  deal  more  or  less  with 
generalities,  are  not  nearly  so  important  as  the  secur- 
How  ^^E  ^^  complete  information  in  each  indi- 

Records  vidual  case.    The  form  shown  in  the  illus- 

®^  tration  is  one  which  is  used  in  getting  a 

report  from  the  teacher  of  the  class.  It  is,  of  course, 
information  which  it  is  to  be  supposed  the  average 

126 


DECISION  DAY 

teacher  has  ah-eady  secured,  but  the  secretary  who  tries 
to  get  these  reports  will,  undoubtedly,  find  that  it  will 
take  both  tact  and  persistence  to  make  the  lists  com- 
plete. From  this  phase  alone  the  work  of  the  secretary 
will  be  exceedingly  valuable,  because  in  untold  cases 
where  the  teacher  gets  this  information  simply  to  sat- 
isfy the  requests  of  the  secretary,  the  conditions  which 
are  revealed  by  the  investigation  are  such  as  to  imme- 
diately result  in  personal  efforts. 

Where  such  a  survey  is  made,  and  where  these  re- 
ports are  checked  over  and  revised,  at  least  quarterly, 
a  very  marked  difference  in  the  number  of  nonchurcli 
members  will  soon  be  apparent.  In  those  cases  where 
the  reports  are  made  regularly,  showing  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  class  to  be  nonchurcli  members,  and 
where  there  are  practically  no  chiu'ch  accessions  from 
the  class,  the  superintendent  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
seeing  one  of  his  problems.  The  class  which  is 
showing  frequent  church  accessions  is  not  the  one 
which  needs  the  work  and  worry  of  the  executive 
officers. 

Such  a  survey,  with  its  tabulated  results,  is  invalu- 
able to  the  pastor.  It  simply  means  that  all  the  work 
of  either  pastor  or  superintendent  can  be  centered  just 
where  it  is  needed,  and  there  need  not  be  any  waste  of 
time  or  duplication  of  effort  on  the  part  of  either.  It 
will  also  be  true  in  practically  every  school  that  there 
will  be  cases  where,  because  of  certain  peculiarities,  the 
teacher  will  ask  that  the  matter  be  not  taken  up  by 
outsiders,  and  where  the  teacher  is  known  to  be  com- 
petent and  reliable,  both  pastor  and  superintendent 
will  willingly  wait  until  there  is  an  opportunity  for 
them  to  be  of  service. 

The  secretary,  again,  is  in  position  to  bring  influ- 

127 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 


JUirst  jttctlraMst  ^ptscapal  #unbag  #cf|aal 


'(Tof  cko,  l^ansas 


Our  records  show  that - ,  a  member  of 

your  class,  has  been  in  this  school  for but  has  never 

united  with  any  church.     Is  this  record  correct? 

What  is  the  scholars  attitude,  indifference  or  active  opposition? 


What  element  or  phase  of  the  Sunday  School  holds  the  scholar?.. 


Are  the  parents  members  of  the  church? 

What  is  their  attitude  and  what  is  the  home  influence  regarding  the  scholar 
uniting  with  the  church? 


Can  you  suggest  how  the  CHURCH  or  the  Sunday  School  could  help  you  in 
bringing  the  scholar  into  the  CHURCH? 


Class  No 

Date _ - _- -.Teacher. 


A  blank  which  is  iisod  quarterly  in  making  a  survey  of  all  of  the 
members  of  the  school  who  are  old  enough  to  have  taken  the  step,  but 
have  not  yet  united  with  the  church.  Such  a  list  is  invaluable  in  any 
school. 

128 


DECISION  DAY 


I   I   I   I  I   I   I   I  TT  I   I   I   I 


DIAGRAM 

Showing  Percentage  of  Conversions 
in  each  Year  of  Age  Jrom  6  to  36 
based  upon  the  Experience  0/ 

2/2  Men 
Average  A^e  oj  Conversion 

16.4  Years 


30S 


COMVEKSIOVS 


<149        3798        34  «J        3037        2728        2369 

15  20  2S         30  35         40         45 


S 


^^GE  OF  ACCEPTING  CHRIST  AND 
PROBABLE  YEARS  OF  USEFULNESS 


THEREAFTER 


9,|.^e43^4 


70 


75         80  VPS. 


UiCURES  BELOW  THE  CANDLES  REPRESENT  THE  ACE  OF  ACCEPTINO  CHRIST 
nOURES  ALONGSIDE  THE  CANDLES  SHOW  THE  LENGTH  OF  LIFE  THAT  MAY 
BE  EXPECTED  TO  FOLLOW  BASED  ON  UFE  INSURANCE  ACTUARIES  TABLES 

An  EARLY  DECISION  MEANS  JUST  SO  MANY  MORE  YEARS  OF  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE 


129 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

ence  to  bear  of  a  nature  which  is  possible  to  no  one  else. 
One  The  secretary  who  will  study  the  with- 

Decision  drawals    from    the    school,    select    those, 

*^  especially  the  ones  for  poor  reasons,  who 

were  not  members  of  the  church  when  they  united  with 
the  Sunday  school  and  who  withdrew  from  the  school 
without  ever  taking  that  important  step,  will  have  data 
which  will  make  the  most  careless  teacher  realize  the 
problem.  The  school  or  the  teacher  who  complacently 
waits  for  the  one  annual  Decision  Day,  and  who  is 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  record  of  the  oppor- 
tunities which  are  in  all  probability  lost  forever,  so  far 
as  that  teacher  or  scliool  are  concerned,  will  not  need 
much  further  urging  to  bring  about  tlie  change  which 
will  put  a  stop  to  sucli  a  condition. 

The  secretary  who  can  show  the  teacher  in  the 
Junior  Department  that  the  greatest  number  of 
church  accessions,  from  that  particular  school,  occur 
during  the  later  Junior  years,  will  do  well  to  couple 
with  this  information  the  admonition  of  a  prominent 
Sunday  school  leader,  in  discussing  the  matter  of  con- 
version: "Give  the  child  time,  but  work  during  that 
time." 

In  the  reports  to  the  Sunday  school  during  its  Sun- 
day sessions,  the  secretary  can  give  due  prominence  to 
the  cases  of  the  children  who  unite  with  the  church. 
At  the  Sunday  School  Board  meeting,  however,  the 
emphasis  will  properly  be  placed  on  the  numbers  who 
are  in  the  school,  in  the  departments  past  the  age  when 
conversion  usually  occurs,  but  who  are  not  as  yet  con- 
nected with  any  church.  The  secretary  needs  a  very 
real  and  very  true  vision  of  this  phase  of  the  work.  It 
is  so  easy  to  be  either  rejoiced  or  to  feel  complacent 
over  the  numbers  who  are  led  to  take  this  step,  but  to 

130 


DECISION  DAY 

rather  overlook  or  forget  those  who  have  not  done  so. 
There  are  far  more  cases  where  the  burden  hes  too 
hghtly  or  the  responsibihty  is  shifted  to  other 
slioulders  than  where  an  undue  emphasis  is  placed. 

As  indicating  the  field  for  work  in  the  Sunday 
school,  the  following  figures  are  taken  from  the  year 
book  of  the  JNIethodist  Sunday  School  Board  for  1915. 
It  shows  4,598,000  in  Methodist  Sunday  schools; 
2,000,000  of  tliese,  approximately,  are  not  church 
members;  230,000  conversions  were  reported  for  1915. 

Simply  as  an  aid  in  studying  the  problem,  the  fol- 
lowing little  story  has  proven  helpful  to  some  secre- 
taries, not  only  from  a  personal  standpoint,  but  as 
opening  up  a  somewhat  different  line  of  approach  to 
the  teacheivs. 

"WILL  THERE  BE  ANY  STARS  IN  MY  CROWN?" 

A  "Once  Upon  a  Time"  Story  for  Grown-Up  Sunday  School 

Folks 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  great  and  wise  King.  He 
ruled  over  his  people  wisely,  but  some  of  them  did  not  want  to 
do  what  the  King  knew  was  best  for  them.  He  did  not  want  to 
punish  them  if  he  could  help  it,  but  he  loved  them  so  much  that 
he  finally  sent  his  only  Son  out  to  these  people  to  teach  them 
and  to  show  them  how  much  better  it  would  be  for  them  .to  do 
as  the  King  wanted  them  to  do. 

Some  of  the  people  welcomed  him  gladly  and  listened  to  him 
and  loved  him  and  followed  his  teachings,  but  some  of  the 
wicked  ones  made  him  all  of  the  trouble  they  could  and  finally 
drove  him  away. 

Before  this,  however,  he  had  told  all  of  them  just  what  the 
King  wanted  them  to  do,  and  that  all  of  them  were  to  tell  all  of 
their  friends  and  their  neighbors  about  it.     He  told  them  how, 

131 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

if  they  would  do  all  of  these  things,  they  would  some  day  come 
to  live  in  the  palace  with  the  King,  and  he  told  them  that  the 
King  would  have  a  splendid  crown  for  each  one  of  them  to  wear. 
And,  what  do  you  think,  he  said  that  every  time  they  got  some 
one  else  to  quit  doing  what  was  wrong  and  to  obey  the  rules  of 
the  King,  there  would  be  a  jewel — a  star — added  to  that  crown. 
The  crown  was  made  so  that  there  would  be  room  for  all  the 
stars  they  could  earn,  and  those  who  worked  the  best  could  have 
the  finest  crown. 

Long,  long  after  the  Prince  went  back  to  the  palace,  a  baby 
girl  was  born  in  one  of  the  homes.  Her  father  and  mother 
loved  the  King  and  his  Son  and  had  been  very  happy  work- 
ing for  them.  They  were  so  glad  when  baby  came,  and  they 
gave  her  the  best  kind  of  a  home.  She  had  good  food,  which 
made  her  body  strong.  They  sent  her  to  the  best  schools  so 
that  her  mind  was  trained  better  than  the  minds  of  lots  of  other 
folks.  They  told  her  all  about  the  King  and  his  plan  for  making 
his  people  happy,  and  how  she  could  help  by  telling  other 
people  about  it.  When  she  was  old  enough  to  understand  just 
what  it  meant — and  she  did  not  have  to  be  grown  up,  for  his 
rules  were  so  simple  and  plain  and  easy  that  even  a  little  girl 
could  tell  others  about  them — she  went  into  a  special  school 
where  she  could  learn  just  the  best  way  to  help  others. 

Finally,  when  she  had  grown  up  to  be  a  splendid  young  woman, 
they  gave  her  a  whole  class  of  little  children,  all  for  her  very  own. 
She  was  to  have  the  chance  to  tell  these  children  about  the  King 
and  his  Son,  and  how  much  they  loved  these  boys  and  girls,  and 
what  they  wanted  them  to  do,  and  what  kind  of  men  and  women 
they  wanted  them  to  be  when  they,  too,  grew  up. 

Now,  the  King  always  knew  all  about  his  people,  and  when 
he  saw  what  a  wonderful  chance  this  young  woman  had,  he  told 
his  people  to  make  one  of  the  very  best  crowns  they  had  ever 
made  and  to  put  just  lots  of  the  settings  for  the  jewels  in  it, 
because  anybody  who  had  had  all  this  home  life  and  all  this 

132 


DECISION  DAY 

training  and  all  this  chance,  could  earn  ever  so  many  stars  for 
her  crown. 

But,  do  you  know,  this  young  woman  got  careless.  She 
began  to  pay  too  much  attention  to  other  things.  The  King 
would  have  been  glad  to  help  her,  but  she  didn't  talk  to  him 
like  she  used  to  and  didn't  ask  him  to  help  her.  She  thought 
that  some  other  time  would  do  to  talk  to  those  little  children, 
and  one  day  one  of  the  boy's  parents  moved  away  and  took 
him  with  them.  They  went  off  where  there  was  no  one  to  tell 
the  boy  about  the  King  and  his  way  of  living  and  that  boy 
never  did  learn.  Another  boy  met  a  man  one  day  who  began 
to  teach  him  bad  things,  but  this  man  paid  so  much  more  at- 
tention to  the  boy  than  did  the  young  woman  that  the  boy  just 
w^ent  with  him  and  the  King  never  did  get  him  to  come  back. 
This  made  the  teacher  sad  and  she  decided  to  talk  with  another 
one  of  the  boys  the  very  next  Sunday,  but  before  Sunday  came 
that  little  boy  was  sick,  and  he  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  he 
never  did  come  back  to  the  school,  and  she  never  saw  him  again. 

And  one  by  one,  for  this  reason  and  for  that,  those  children 
grew  up  without  ever  learning  to  love  the  King  and,  do  you 
know,  that  was  really  all  that  the  King  wanted  them  to  do, 
just  love  him;  because  when  we  really  love  anyone  we  like  to 
do  just  what  they  want  us  to  do;  and  if  she  had  just  loved  those 
children  so  much  that  they  would  have  loved  the  King,  that 
would  have  been  all  she  would  have  had  to  do. 

Well,  finally,  she  had  to  go  to  the  Palace  and  see  the  King. 
Of  course  he  knew  all  about  it.  She  had  not  done  anything  that 
was  wicked  herself,  but  the  King  just  showed  her  her  crown, 
and  I  am  sure  that  there  were  tears  in  his  eyes  when  he  did  it. 
There  was  that  splendid  crown,  but  nearly  every  one  of  those 
settings  stood  there  empty  and  ugly.  Just  a  few  of  them  had 
jewels  in  them,  and  these  only  showed  her  how  it  would  have 
looked  if  it  had  been  all  finished.  She  had  to  put  on  that 
poor  unfinished  crown  and  wear  it.     How  different  it  was  from 

133 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

what  she  had  once  thought  that  it  would  be !  When  she  learned 
about  those  children  who  had  once  been  in  her  care  and  had 
slipped  away,  and  how  unhappy  they  were  and  how  unhappy 
they  made  their  King,  she  felt  so  sorry,  but  it  was  too  late. 
How  she  wished  that  she  might  have  a  chance  to  try  it  all  over 
again ! 

She  finally  went  to  the  King  and  told  him  all  about  it  and 
asked  him  to  please  help  her.  And  what  do  you  think  the 
King  did.?  He  sent  just  one  Httle  idea  down  and  put  it  into  the 
head  of  that  lady's  own  little  girl,  and  one  day  she  was  teaching 
her  own  class  of  little  boys  and  girls,  and  she  thought  how  her 
own  crown  would  look  unless  she  did  all  she  could  to  win  a  star 
for  every  one  of  these  children;  and  she  went  right  to  work, 
and,  of  course,  when  she  did  that  the  King  helped  her  all  of  the 
time,  and  finally  she  had  one  of  the  biggest  and  finest  and  best 
crowns  that  had  ever  been  worn  in  that  Palace. 


134 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  NEW  SECRETARY 

The  problem  which  the  new  secretary  faces  is  de- 
pendent in  large  measure  upon  the  former  policy  of 
the  school  and  of  his  successor.  Where  the  work  is 
planned  and  being  carried  on  in  a  modern,  up-to-date 
manner,  the  work  of  keeping  it  going  is  comparatively 
easy.  The  average  new  secretary,  however,  will  usu- 
ally find  that  all  there  is  on  which  to  build  is  the  attend- 
ance records. 

The  first  step  to  be  taken  is  the  educational  one. 
The  new  secretary  must  realize  that  the  feeling  of  need 
The  f^i'  the  records  on  the  part  of  the  school 

Educational     and  his  fellow  officers  must  be  first  de- 

^^®  veloped.     The  work,  even  to-day,  is  in 

very  large  measure  pioneer  work.  The  lack  of  rec- 
ords is  not  felt  in  the  ordinary  school,  and  the  first 
task  of  the  secretary  is  well  expressed  in  the  words  of 
a  prominent  educator  in  outlining  tlie  duty  of  the  day- 
school  teacher,  and  would  be,  paraphrased,  "To  make 
tlie  members  of  the  school  want  what  the  secretary 
really  knows  they  ought  to  have."  Unless  this  want 
can  be  created,  the  compilation  of  complete  records  in 
a  school  which  has  run  for  years  without  them  will  be 
admittedly  a  difficult  task. 

As  a  general  thing,  it  is  necessary  to  secure  eiu'oll- 

Xhe  ment  data  from  the  school  as  'a  wliole.    To 

Starting  do  this  it  is  necessary  to  get  the  confidence 

and    cooperation    of    the    teachers,    and 

then  on  some  day  when  there  is  a  good  attendance 

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THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

distribute  the  enrollment  cards  and  get  tlie  teachers  to 
give  you  enough  of  their  valuable  class  time  to  have 
each  member  fill  out  the  individual  card.  Keep  a 
record  of  those  who  are  not  present  on  this  Sunday, 
and  week  after  week,  as  the  attendance  records  show 
these  to  be  present,  get  these  additional  cards  filled 
out. 

As  this  is  being  done,  names  will  be  found  where 
the  scholars  cannot  be  located,  and  here  is  the  call  for 
the  starting  of  the  investigation  of  withdrawals.  This 
little  journey  into  unknown  territory  leads  to  another, 
and  the  reasons  for  continued  absences  are  discovered. 
As  the  view  broadens,  one  of  the  great  purposes  of  tlie 
Sunday  school  stands  out — the  leading. of  the  child  to 
a  personal  acceptance  of  Christ.  Card  after  card  is 
found  which  reports  no  church  membership,  and  there 
comes  the  desire  to  learn  from  each  teacher  just  the 
"why"  of  every  unsaved  scholar.  Thus  each  step  log- 
ically leads  to  the  next.  There  are  delightful  side 
trips,  little  excursions  made  possible  by  strictly  local 
conditions,  but  the  broad,  beaten  path  follows  the 
course  just  outlined. 

These  are  the  fundamentals  on  which  to  build  the 
individual  system.  No  two  will  be  just  alike.  The 
properly  selected  secretary  is  chosen  because  of 
marked  ability  in  the  record  line,  and  should  al- 
wajs  be  given  a  free  hand  in  methods.  A  ready- 
made  system  never  makes  an  appeal  to  the  ideal  secre- 
tary, but  it  is  equally  true  that  some  good  can  be 
gleaned  from  the  study  of  those  plans  which  others 
have  found  successful.  Study  the  details  of  the  indi- 
vidual problem,  seek  the  reason  for  each  form  shown 
in  the  book,  go  through  the  catalogue  of  every  supply 
house,  seek  to  know  what  others  are  doing,  and  then 

136 


THE  NEW  SECRETARY 

carefully,  painstakingly  develop  the  system  which  you 
can  best  work,  in  your  own  way,  in  your  own  school. 

Found  it  on  the  fundamentals  of  enrollment,  at- 
tendance, study  of  absences  and  withdrawals,  and  with 
these  once  established,  be  your  own 
mental?^*"  builder.  One  additional  suggestion  may 
be  given  the  new  secretary.  It  is  a  plan 
calling  for  information  which  can  be  most  reasonably 
and  most  tactfully  secured  by  the  new  secretary  early 
in  the  work.  It  is  the  survey  of  the  school  for  the 
reason  for  non church  membership.  The  new  secre- 
tary can  ask  rather  personal  questions  and  conduct 
lines  of  inquiry  which  would  be  closed  to  one  who  had 
been  doing  the  work  for  some  time.  A  regular  period- 
ical following  up  of  each  case  of  continued  connection 
with  the  school,  but  without  uniting  with  the  church, 
will  frequently  do  more  good  than  almost  anything 
else.  The  secretary  can  approach  the  teacher  in  an 
impersonal  way  which  is  open  to  no  other  officer,  and 
many  a  teacher  has  been  led  to  see  the  importance  of 
this  work  simply  by  being  asked  to  make  these  regular 
reports. 

The  new  secretary  will  be  wise  in  going  slowly. 
The  average  Sunday  school  is  not  strong  enough  to 
have  the  entire  dose  of  a  complete  modern  secretary 
system  administered  at  one  time.  If  the  four  funda- 
mentals can  be  thoroughly  established  in  one  or  two 
years'  time,  the  secretary  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the 
progress. 

In  a  very  real  sense,  each  Sunda}^  school  secretary  is 
conducting  an  experimental  station,  and  the  success  of 
the  experiment  will,  in  a  very  large  measure,  depend 
upon  the  cooperation  which  is  secured  from  those  who 
are  being  experimented  upon.    This  particular  phase 

137 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

will  appeal  to  a  certain  element  in  nearly  every  school, 
which,  if  tactfully  handled,  will  make  the  work  of  the 
secretary  not  only  easier  and  more  pleasant  but  much 
more  effective. 

The  new  secretary,  in  the  enthusiasm  for  methods 
which  will  mean  increased  regularity  of  attendance, 
will  do  well  to  profit  by  one  phase  of  expe- 
Dangers  rience,  which  has  been  dearly  bought  by 

more  than  one  secretary  or  superintend- 
ent. Contests  and  competition  between  classes  and 
departments  in  the  same  school,  fairly  based  on  per- 
centage of  attendance,  rather  than  totals,  are  bene- 
ficial, but  decidedly  need  safeguarding.  Any  plan 
which  is  so  devised  or  conducted  as  to  result  in  classes 
seeking  to  avoid  having  new  members  assigned  to 
them,  lest  they  be  more  irregular  than  the  old  mem- 
bers, and  thus  lower  the  class  standard,  is  decidedly  to 
be  avoided.  It  is  far  better  to  have  a  class  which  per- 
haps does  not  have  quite  so  high  a  percentage  of  at- 
tendance, but  which  has  the  honor  and  credit  of  hold- 
ing some  member  under  very  difficult  circumstances. 
While  regularity  of  attendance  is  desirable,  there  are 
other  featiu'es  whicli  carry  still  more  lionor,  and  the 
new  secretary  will  build  very  cautiously  and  experi- 
ment carefully  before  launching  any  big  campaign  or 
contest. 

The  new  secretary  will  need  two  things,  at  first 
thought  diametrically  opposed.  He  needs  all  the  ex- 
perience which  can  be  secured  second- 
Essentials  hand,  and  for  this  reason  it  would  be  far 
better  if  the  newly  elected  or  appointed 
secretary  could  be  given  a  few  weeks,  or  even  months, 
for  visiting  other  Sunday  schools  and  seeing  how  the 
work  is  done  in  those  schools.     As  said  before,  the 

138 


THE  NEW  SECRETARY 

position  is  not  merely  a  clerical  one  and  requires  a 
very  general  knowledge,  not  only  of  record-keeping, 
but  of  the  principles  of  modern  Sunday  school  work. 
The  second  element  is  self-confidence.  The  secretary 
who  is  not  sure  of  his  own  plans  and  methods  will  not 
be  successful  in  getting  his  fellow  workers  to  believe 
in  them  or  to  give  them  a  fair  trial.  A  business  mag- 
azine contained  two  phrases  which  the  new  secretary 
would  do  well  to  keep  constantly  in  mind:  "The  one 
who  thi7iks  that  he  can't  do  a  thing  is  usually  right." 
"The  first  half  of  IF  is  I." 

Red  tape  should  be  dispensed  with.  The  sole  pur- 
pose of  the  records  of  the  secretary  is  to  increase  the 
efficiency  of  the  school,  and  red  tape  and  efficiency  are 
not  synonymous  terms.  Study  the  characteristics  of 
the  ideal  secretary  and  develop  just  as  many  of  them 
as  is  possible. 

Remember  that  a  large  measure  of  the  success  of 
your  school  will  be  in  your  keeping.  Seek  to  make 
yourself  worthy  of  this  trust  and  this  responsibility. 
No  higher  aim  need  ever  be  sought  than  to  live  up  to 
the  fullest  responsibility  of  the  modern  Sunday  school 
secretary. 


339 


CHAPTER  XIV 
QUICK  REFERENCE  RECORDS 

For  Larger  Schools 

In  schools  where  the  enrollment  runs  to  the  hun- 
dreds, or  even  to  the  thousands,  it  is  somewhat  diffi- 
cult to  compile  some  of  the  details  without  a  degree  of 
work  which  is  usually  prohibitive.  This  condition  has 
been  met  in  some  schools  by  methods  which  not  only 
make  for  quick  reference,  but  which  also  attract  atten- 
tion by  their  appeal  to  the  eye.  The  chart  shown  in 
the  illustration  is  one  which  is  applicable  to  almost 
any  school.  Some  schools  which  keep  the  individual 
record  of  the  scholar  or  the  class  in  a  bound  book  use 
the  same  method  of  different  colors  and  shapes  of 
labels  to  indicate  the  various  changes,  etc.  An  ex- 
planation of  this  one  chart  will  give  the  basis  for  all  of 
these  systems  and  will  also  serve  to  show  tlie  extent  to 
which  these  details  are  kept,  and  the  value  of  doing  so. 
This  is,  as  explained  before,  only  one  method  out  of 
many,  but  is  a  representative  one. 

Each  label  indicates  a  member  of  the  school.  The 
oval  label  is  used  with  two  different  colored  borders, 
one  red  and  the  other  gilt.  The  gilt  border  indicates 
a  member  of  the  school  who  is  also  a  member  of  the 
church.  The  red  border  indicates  a  nonchurch  mem- 
ber. 

The  hearts  indicate  those  who  have  just  united  with 
the  school  and  who  have  not  yet  been  registered  as 
active  members.    A  great  man}^  schools  do  not  enter  a 

140 


First  Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday  School 

OUR  AIM-    The  Deveuopment  of  the  H15HEST 


?1  on  the  chart  has  a  different  meaning  ae  explained  below  - 
that  it  is  just  ae  easy  to  attach  one  as  the  other  and  far 
A  put  on  a  label  than  to  fill  out  several  cardn  for  fiTino- 


^ 


I  explained  bslow  ■ 


ffllf    ^  LabelB  plac 

O  J,:^ 

^-%  Thla  label  : 

{        >  Blclcneae,  li 


.asB  gratlfylngly  i 


QUICK  REFERENCE  RECORDS 

new  scholar  as  an  active  member  until  a  certain  per- 
centage of  attendance  is  recorded,  usually  fifty  per 
cent.  The  hearts  are  in  two  colors,  red  and  gilt,  indi- 
cating, as  do  the  oval  labels,  nonchurch  membership 
and  church  membership. 

The  round  seals  indicate  withdrawals.  The  white 
one  indicates  a  withdrawal  for  a  good  reason,  the  red 
one  a  withdrawal  for  a  poor  reason. 

The  diamond-shaped  label  indicates  a  transfer  from 
one  class  or  from  one  position  in  the  school  to  another. 

The  star  indicates  that  the  member  has  imited  with 
the  church  din-ing  the  current  year,  in  which  this  chart 
is  in  effect. 

The  number  on  each  label  indicates  the  enrollment 
number  of  the  individual  scholar,  so  that  the  name  can 
be  ascertained  at  any  time,  by  reference  to  the  nu- 
merical register. 

This  chart  deals  simply  with  enrollment  details  and 
does  not  show  attendance.  All  of  the  details  which  the 
executive  officers  of  the  school  need  in  planning  their 
constructive  work,  are  shown  on  this  chart. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  phases  revealed  by 
the  chart  which  would  require  prohibitive  time  to  sort 
out  from  even  a  most  thorough  card  system. 

The  relative  size  of  classes  and  departments  is 
shown  at  a  glance  and  is  easily  subdivided  into  church 
members  and  nonchurch  members,  by  classes,  by  de- 
partments, and  the  totals  for  the  school  as  a  whole. 
The  executive  officers  can  tell  with  just  what  elements 
they  are  dealing  in  every  section  of  the  school. 

The  heart-shaped  labels  reveal  the  activities  of  the 
school,  so  far  as  reaching  the  community  is  concerned. 
The  growth  of  the  school  by  departments  and  by 
classes  is  easily  traced.     The  classes  or  departments 

141 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

which  are  growing  are  clearly  indicated,  as  well  as 
those  which  are  simply  standing  still.  The  informa- 
tion goes  further.  The  chart  shows  clearly  whether 
the  school  is  enrolling  simply  church  members  or 
whether  it  is  reaching  out  for  new  material.  It  shows 
which  classes  or  departments  are  doing  this  work 
among  nonchurch  members.  The  influence  of  the 
school  on  the  nonreligious  life  of  the  community  is 
absolutely  traced  in  this  way. 

When  the  new  member  becomes  an  active  member 
the  proper  oval  hibel  is  placed  over  the  heart-shaped 
label.  Again,  there  is  the  efficiency  test  of  the  school 
by  departments  and  l)y  classes.  Holding  the  scholar 
after  enrollment  is  of  prime  importance,  and  this  chart 
focuses  attention  on  this  specific  problem.  The  heart- 
shaped  label  wliich  goes  on  the  cliart  and  stays  there 
is  a  warning,  and  the  superintendent  or  proper  execu- 
tive officer  is  prepared  by  the  use  of  this  chart  to  fol- 
low up  the  individual  scholar  and  exert  the  proper 
influence  in  bringing  back  the  one  who  is  indifferent. 
The  superintendent  who  has  the  information  before 
him  knows  positively  to  what  teacher  to  say,  "How  do 
you  do  it?"  as  well  as  to  whom  to  say,  "Why  don't 
you?"  The  chart  will  eliminate  every  waste  motion, 
in  this  respect,  on  the  part  of  both  superintendent 
and  secretary. 

Church  membership  information  is  recognized  as 
being  valuable,  but  it  is  usually  so  hard  to  compile  in 
any  way  that  will  make  it  available  for  quick  reference 
that  it  is,  as  a  rule,  simply  a  matter  of  guesswork.  A 
system  of  this  nature  gives  this  information  at  a 
glance.  Anyone  who  wishes  to  make  a  close  analytical 
study  of  the  transition  period  in  Sunday  school  life  has 
all  of  the  necessary  data  easily  available.    In  this  con- 

142  " 


QUICK  REFERENCE  RECORDS 

nection  there  is  another  great  possibihty.  The  number 
on  the  red-bordered  label  will  indicate  the  approxi- 
mate date  of  enrollment  as  each  new  member  is  listed 
on  the  numerical  register.  (In  the  case  of  the  school 
which  is  already  organized,  but  which  has  not  used  any 
numerical  register,  the  first  step  is  to  ascertain  the 
approximate  year  when  each  member  joined  the 
school.  Tlie  numbers  can  then  be  assigned  more  or  less 
arbitrarily,  giving  tlie  scholar  who  has  had  the  long- 
est connection  witli  the  school  the  lowest  number. 
When  tliis  system  is  once  established,  the  lower  the 
number  on  tlie  label,  the  longer  connection  with  the 
school  is  indicated.) 

Therefore  a  low  numl^er  on  a  red-bordered  label 
indicates  a  long  connection  with  the  school  on  the  part 
of  some  one  who  was  not  a  church  member  at  the  time 
of  uniting  with  the  school  and  who  has  not  been 
brought  into  church  fellowship.  Data  of  this  nature 
are  invaluable  in  working  with  Decision  Day  records, 
whether  the  Decision  Day  is  one  Sunday  in  the  year  or 
every  Sunday. 

The  next  step  is  the  crucial  one.  The  study  of  with- 
drawals, and  particularly  those  for  poor  reasons,  is  a 
most  vital  element  in  modern  Sunday  school  manage- 
ment. These  labels  show  the  information  in  graphic 
form.  The  round  white  labels,  indicating  withdrawal 
for  good  reason,  are  simply  a  matter  of  record.  The 
red  ones  are  the  real  danger  signals  of  the  school. 
They  mean  a  withdrawal  for  which  some  one,  some- 
where, is  directly  to  blame.  The  superintendent  w^ho 
sees  them  accumulating  in  a  class  or  a  department 
cannot  be  too  quick  in  applying  "first  aid."  The 
superintendent  who  does  not  have  this  information 
available  is  laboring  under  a  heavy  handicap.     This 

143 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

system  furnishes  the  information  by  classes,  by  depart- 
ments, bj'^  the  school  as  a  whole.  It  is  no  longer  a 
matter  of  surmise  as  to  the  age  at  which  scholars  leave 
the  Sunday  schools,  neither  is  there  any  element  of 
doubt  as  to  whether  the  reasons  are  good  or  poor. 

The  star  which  indicates  union  with  the  church  is 
again  the  test  of  the  work  by  departments  and  by 
classes.  Again,  the  superintendent  knows  where  to 
say  "How?"  and  where  "Why  not?"  At  a  glance  he 
tells  the  critical  age,  knows  where  to  concentrate,  and 
applies  the  test  of  the  real  efficiency  of  the  work  of  the 
school. 

These  are  bvit  a  few  of  the  phases  which  are  made 
prominent  by  this  system  of  labels.  There  are  innum- 
erable other  features  which  will  develop  as  the  chart  is 
prepared  and  its  opportunities  studied.  The  informa- 
tion furnished  by  this  chart  alone  will  give  the  aggres- 
sive Sunday  school  superintendent  opportunities  for 
effective  work. 

To  the  new  secretary  the  work  may  look  compli- 
cated. As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  exceedingly  simple. 
It  is  just  as  easy  to  put  on  one  label  as  another,  and 
the  shape  and  color  of  the  label  tell  their  own  story  and 
in  a  way  which  would  require  an  exceedingly  com- 
plicated card  system  to  record  it  by  that  method. 

This  system  also  serves  as  a  check  on  the  compila- 
tion of  some  of  the  vital  statistics.  For  example,  it 
requires  positively  that  the  secretary  know  whether  or 
not  the  new  scholar  is  a  church  member.  Without  this 
knowledge  the  proper  label  cannot  be  selected.  In 
case  of  withdrawal,  the  records  must  show  whether  it 
is  for  a  good  or  a  poor  reason,  in  order  that  the  proper 
label  may  be  used.  This  holds  good  throughout  the 
entire  system. 

144 


QUICK  REFERENCE  RECORDS 

The  cost  element  is  always  one  to  be  considered,  but 
in  tliis  case  it  is  reduced  to  a  niininuim.  The  labels  are 
simply  stock  ones  which  any  stationer  can  furnish. 
Where  they  are  used  in  a  bound  book  the  trifling  cost 
of  the  labels  is  the  entire  expense.  Where  a  chart  is 
preferred  the  secretary  can  simply  use  a  sheet  of  card- 
board, ruled  to  shoAv  the  dej)artments  and  classes.  The 
system  can  be  made  as  simple  as  may  be  practical  or 
as  elaborate  as  may  be  necessary  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  individual  school. 

The  system  is  not  a  "cure-all."  It  will  do  nothing 
by  itself.  It  will  take  time  and  careful  work  to  keep 
it  up,  but  can  be  made  to  repay  all  of  the  effort  ex- 
pended upon  it.  It  will  enable  both  the  secretary  and 
the  executive  officers  to  know  the  school  as  they  have 
never  been  able  to  know  it  before.  It  will  not  be  re- 
garded as  a  result,  but  it  will  afford  wonderful  oppor- 
tunities for  results. 


145 


CHAPTER  XV 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

Records  are  not  results.  They  may  be  an  evidence 
of  results  or  an  incentive  to  effort.  They  are  not  the 
end,  only  a  possible  means  to  the  end. 


There  is  a  difference  between  records  and  knowl- 
edge. The  latter  may  be  useful  to  the  individual 
possessor;  the  recording  of  the  knowledge  makes  it 
available  to  all. 


Sunday  school  records  mean  an  investment  of  time 
and  money  and  energy,  and  the  investment  should  not 
be  made  unless  there  is  an  intention  to  make  it  pay 
returns.  Many  a  school  is  suffering  from  an  excess  of 
unassimilated  plans  and  methods. 


In  the  keeping  of  secretary's  records,  an  outlay  of 
thought  will  bring  far  greater  returns  than  a  mere 
outlay  of  money. 

Go  slow  in  experimenting.  Experiments  cost 
money.  Every  branch  of  modern  industry  is  eager 
to  study  the  methods  used  elsewhere  and  quick  to 
profit  by  the  experience  of  others.  In  co-related  prob- 
lems, the  approved  method  is  to  seek  the  solution  which 
is  nearest  perfect  and  begin  at  that  stage,  rather  than 
to  retread  the  various  fundamental  steps  in  the  proc- 
ess.    The  Sunday  school  secretary  is,  therefore,  wise 

146 


THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

in  making  a  close  intensive  study  of  the  industrial  and 
commercial  problems  which  so  much  resemble  those  in 
the  Sunday  school  work,  seeking  the  approved  meth- 
ods in  general  use,  and  devoting  all  of  the  time  and 
effort  to  adapting  them  to  the  needs  of  the  particular 
school. 


The  work  of  the  secretary's  department  will  center 
around  the  ability  of  the  general  secretary  and  will 
take  on  the  characteristics  of  that  individual.  This  is 
an  element  to  be  considered  in  the  selection  of  a  new 
secretary. 


The  superintendent  and  secretar}'^  must  work  in 
complete  harmony.  Team  work  is  an  absolute  essen- 
tial. The  superintendent  is  tlie  chief  executive  of  the 
scliool.  The  secretary  should  be  selected  with  this 
consideration. 


The  secretary  can  perform  a  very  valuable  service 
by  releasing  the  school  which  is  tied  up  with  red  tape. 
Red  tape  always  decreases  efficiency.  Proper  records 
always  increase  efficiency. 


Methods  are  more  than  forms.  The  ability  to  col- 
lect information  is  more  important  than  the  particular 
rulings  in  a  record  book.  The  secretary  who  is  filled 
with  a  desire  to  so  study  his  school  as  to  be  of  the  great- 
est help  to  it  will  always  outstrip  the  automatic  user 
of  the  finest  ready-made  system. 


The  secretary  is  essentially  the  superintendent's 
assistant.  The  greatest  need  of  the  average  superin- 
tendent is  not  new  plans  or  methods,  but  time  to  work 

147 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

out  those  the  need  of  which  is  ah^eady  felt.  The  secre- 
tary's job  is  to  see  that  the  superintendent  has  this 
time  by  making  it  possible  to  eliminate  every  waste 
motion  and  concentrate  every  available  moment  on 
real  constructive  work. 


The  secretary  who  has  a  thorough,  comprehensive 
grasp  of  the  fundamentals  of  record-keeping  can  suc- 
cessfully select  his  own  methods.  If  he  tries  individual 
theory,  ignoring  the  basic  principles,  there  is  trouble 
ahead  for  both  secretary  and  school. 


Statistics,  figures,  are  peculiar.  They  are  like  chil- 
dren— it  is  no  use  to  try  to  work  with  them  or  get 
them  to  do  anything  for  you,  unless  j^ou,  in  tiu'n,  like 
tliem  and  like  to  work  with  them. 


Records  are  important,  but  they  constitute  only  one 
phase  of  Sunday  school  work.  They  should  be,  and 
they  can  be,  collected  with  all  due  regard  to  the  value 
of  the  limited  lesson  period.  The  secretary's  system 
should  be  planned  with  a  view  of  not  interrupting  the 
class  during  the  time  which  properly  belongs  to  the 
teacher. 


The  starting  point  in  the  development  of  any  record 
system  is  a  study  of  the  purposes  of  the  institution. 
If  the  Sunday  school  be  merely  an  educational  factor 
in  the  lives  of  its  members,  one  form  of  records  will 
be  needed.  If  the  membership  be  regarded  as  a  won- 
derful instrumentality  which  is  intrusted  to  the  officers 
and  teachers  to  be  used  in  His  service  in  the  com- 
munity, something  entirely  different  will  have  to  be 

148 


THINGS  TO  KEMEMBER 

devised  in  the  recording  of  its  activities.     Know  the 
school,  its  aims  and  objectives,  first. 


Records  are  inanimate,  but  have  a  terrific  amount 
of  energy  stored  up  in  them.  As  coal  releases  its  en- 
ergy when  used  by  the  expert  fireman  in  furnace  or 
under  boiler,  so  the  records  yield  their  greatest  value 
when  they  are  properly  placed  and  properly  handled 
by  the  expert  secretary,  whose  first  consideration  is  the 
transmission  of  the  energy  which  he  alone  can  release. 


Don't  be  discouraged  if  the  results  are  not  imme- 
diately evident,  or  if  cooperation  is  not  spontaneous. 
Remember  that  the  work  is  new  and  is  but  little  under- 
stood. With  the  leaders  only  is  the  work  of  the  secre- 
tary filling  a  long-felt  want.  With  the  majority  that 
want  must  be  created  as  well  as  supplied.  Remember 
that  the  momentum  of  the  mass  depends  upon  getting 
the  atom  started.  Concentrate  the  first  work  on  an 
individual,  perhaps  a  class,  possibly  a  department. 


Remember  that  school  loyalty  is  one  of  the  aims  of 
the  work  of  the  secretary.  The  most  valuable  growth 
of  the  school  is  from  within.  It  is  a  most  important 
element  in  the  work  of  the  secretary  to  arouse  school 
loyalty  and  make  constant  appeal  to  it.  School  loy- 
alty is  something  which  can  wither  and  die  very 
quickly  simply  through  inactivity.  Keeping  it  exer- 
cised is  one  of  the  secretary's  jobs. 


The  real  test  of  the  efficiency  of  the  work  of  the 
secretary  is  not  to  be  found  in  scientifically  ruled  books 
or  beautifully  kept  records,  but  in  the  fact  as  to 
whether  or  not  the  work  and  the  records  have  benefited 

149 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  SECRETARY 

the  school.  It  is  not  a  question  of  what  tools  have  been 
used,  but  of  the  results  achieved.  If  the  attendance 
is  not  more  regular;  if  the  withdrawals  for  poor  rea- 
sons are  not  checked;  if  a  larger  percentage  of  the 
members  do  not  unite  with  the  church,  if  the  efficiency 
of  the  officers,  as  well  as  of  the  teaching  force,  is  not 
raised,  if  the  school  is  not  better  for  the  work  which 
has  been  done,  then  the  real  purpose  of  record-keeping 
has  not  been  achieved. 


150 


INDEX 


Absences -. 48 

Excused 53,  54 

Forms 49,  51,  53,  55,  57 

Advertising 124 

Age  of  Conversion 69,  126 

Attendance 

Records 32 

How  to  secure 34 

Forms 33,  35,  37,  39,  43 

Birthday  Forms 89 

Bulletin  Boards 96,  97,  105 

Business  Meeting 106 

Forms 105 

Class  Records , 32 

Forms 33,  35,  37,  39,  43,  116 

Contests 114,  138 

Decision  Day  Helps 126 

Forms 129 

Enrollment 

Securing   iiiforrnalion .  .  ^ 20 

Essent  ial  data 22,  140 

Enrollment  secretary 26 

Forms 21,  23,  25 

Home  Influences 67,  76,  108 

Letters 

To  parents 82 

Forms .S3,  84,  87,  88,  101 

To  scholars 86 

New  Teachers 14 

New  Members 

How  to  enroll 20 

How  to  hold 30,  42,  48,  62 

How  to  assign  to  class 27 

How  to  secure 85,  108,  119 

Forms 110,  HI,  113,  115 

151 


INDEX 

Parents 

Letters  to 82 

Reports  to 101 

Prospective  Members 108 

Forms 110,  111,  113,  115 

Record  Book 40 

Cards  and  loose  leaves 93,  94,  95 

Register 31 

Reports 

To  school 91 

How  to  prepare 92 

To  classes 103 

To  parents 101 

To  scholars 93,  99 

To  business  meeting 106 

Rural  Schools 118 

Survey 119,  121 

Secretary,  The 

In  business 6 

Duties 15 

Qualifications 17 

Training 7 

Suggestions  to  new 135 

Starting  Point  for  New  Secretary 135 

Studying  the  Scholar 26,  60 

Survey  of  Community 1 19,  121 

Teacher's  Report 45 

Cooperation 131 

Test  of  the  Work 149 

Transfers 68 

Forms 75,  77 

Vacation  Records 58 

Forms 59,  60,  61 

Withdrawals 64 

How  to  watch 143 

Chart  of  causes 66 

Forms 73 


152 


^M 


rinceton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01040  3790 


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